No Hope
by Patlabor
Summary: The events that occurred just before Resident Evil 2, what led up to the fall and collapse of the once quiet, traquill, beautiful Raccoon City. What happened? The Umbrella Corp. had more than what was played...
1. Default Chapter

"NO HOPE"  
  
PROLOGUE  
  
It was September 20, 1998 in Raccoon City Square, people were bustling about on their own business. It had been about two months since the incident involving the mansion located in the secluded part of Raccoon Forest was reported by Raccoon Times Associated Press Inc. The Raccoon City citizens was horrified and doubtful of the story that the Special Tactics And Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S.) team of the Raccoon City Police Department was almost completely wiped out in a mansion by reports of the surviving members of monsters and zombies. The survivors claimed that the international corporation, Umbrella Inc. was behind all of it, the leading cause in the incident. The members had said they had evidence against them, but it was all destroyed when the mansion exploded. The story sounded like it came straight out of "Night of the Living Dead", with the dead walking and eating the flesh of the living due to the release and effects of a microorganism known as the T-Virus that was created by Umbrella Inc. The people were skeptical of the reports from the STARS teams and quickly dismissed the report as quickly as they read it.   
It was 12:33 pm in Raccoon City Square and no one noticed a limping individual dumbly bumping into a trash canister in a nearby alley in the dark shadows of the sun, his skin was rotting and he was constantly drooling a mix of blood and saliva, if any. A man wearing a business suit stopped in the middle of the square, trying to light a cigarette against the wind in the square, which blew off one teenager's baseball cap off her head. The man, who had to get to a meeting in ten minutes, was in dire need of a smoke before the conference. He picked up his briefcase and headed over to a nearby alley to try his luck against the wind there. After several tries with the lighter, he finally lit the cigarette and stood there for a moment savoring the moment.   
While the man smoked his cig, the limping body made it's way into a lit portion of the alley, just as a remembering feeling that he felt wanted the thing the man was smoking, but a instinct took over and he wanted flesh. The man turned from his cigarette as he heard a dragging of something and a moan. There had been a few reports in the newspaper of unusual attacks where people were left eaten and dead, the police had said it was stray dogs that were killing the people, so, he was a little suspicious of the sounds.   
But what he saw caused him to drop his cigarette and stand there speechless. The noise was from a male who he thought was about in his mid-30's, with a balding head and stood about 5 feet 8 inches tall, Caucasian. He could see his face looked like it was melted or peeling and gasped at the sight of it. As it came closer he then saw that its stomach was ripped open and his organs were hanging out, dripping goo and blood. He then realized it looked like a zombie. He started to stagger out of the alley now that the thing was starting to move faster toward him with its' arms outstretched at him.   
He was just about out of the alleyway and started to turn to run, but the tripped on his briefcase. He fell face down to the ground, it then lunged at him on the ground, falling on top of him. He pushed the zombie off of him and started to crawl away when it grabbed him at the ankle and bit him on his calf, spilling out blood in the alley and on his pants and all over the zombie's mouth. He screamed from the pain and from terror out into the square and those that were passing or heard the scream immediately turned to source of the sound.  
Panic and fear soon took over his mind and he tried pulled and crawled frantically from the zombie as it started to crawl over his body. A man heard the scream and ran over to the alley to see what was happening, he saw what was going on and reached out to the man and helped pull him free from the zombie.  
As the Samaritan helped the businessman up, he started talking to the guy.  
"Yo, what the F%$K is that thing, huh? And what did it do to you man!?!", the guy asked him.  
"I...I think it's a zombie, it bit me on my leg. I think I'm bleeding." He answered back.  
"What, what the H#$L are you talking about? I'll teach that BAS#%RD a thing about attacking people, AAAHH!!!"   
"NO, WAIT!" said the man, but it was already too late, he had already ran toward the zombie. By now, people who were around were soon gathering to see what was happening.  
The guy ran toward the zombie and threw his fist at the zombie, hitting it square in the face. The zombie staggered a few steps back and fell to the ground. The guy brought back his fist and looked at, it was covered with rotten flesh, pieces of jaw, teeth and slime.  
"What the FU--!", he said, "what the H$%L is that thing anyway?"  
"I told you", said the man, "I think it's a zombie, we need the police!"  
The people nearby gasped at what he said and stared into the alleyway, wondering what was going to happen next. Someone screamed out police and another dialed 911 on their cell phone. Just then the zombie got up and lunged at the guy that had hit it. The guy saw the zombie lung at him from the corner of his eye and tried to back away but it was too late. The zombie had grabbed him and bit a chunk of his throat, the bite ruptured his jugular, spurting blood all over him and the zombie and the sidewalk.   
The people nearby started to scream at the horror and scattered in all directions. The businessman went to run too, but because of his leg bite, he tripped and fell onto the sidewalk, a few feet from the zombie. The zombie looked up at the commotion and saw the man fall to the sidewalk and decided to leave his meal and start on another.  
It now began...  
  
  
THE CALL  
  
"This is 911, Raccoon City Police Department, Operator Rodriguez, how may I help you?", said Officer Jennifer Rodriguez, now an Operator for Emergency Medical Services as she answered the call to 911. The person on the other end sounded frantic and nervous as he, it sounded like a he, spoke to her.  
"Ok, ok now. Slow down and speak clearly, what's wrong and what's happening?" She interrupted the man as he spoke.  
"Ok, I'm at Raccoon City Square, a man was just attacked by what he says is a...a zombie I think he said. He said it bit him on the leg, I think I see him bleeding from here", the man answered Operator Rodriguez nervously and unsure of himself.  
"Are you hurt or anyone else near you?", she asked.  
"No and I don't think anyone else is either."  
"Ok, help is on the-", she was interrupted as he screamed.  
"AAHH!!! It, it just got up and bit the other guy on the neck, Oh my God! There's blood everywhere, all over, ah,ah..." The caller yelled into the cell phone.  
"Listen, the police are on the way with a ambulance, just hold on." She responded.  
"No way I'm staying here any longer, I'm not going to die." He said as he dropped his cell phone and ran.  
"WAIT! HOLD ON!", she said as she heard the phone hit something and cut off. 'What the H$#L is going on?' she thought.  
  
"HELP IS ON THE WAY!"  
  
Officer John M. Lewell and Officer Phil Caulk were at a red light in their squad car, eight blocks from Raccoon City Square talking about how Lewell's girlfriend is so "nice", when the call came in.  
"Romeo-1-2-8, this is Dispatch, respond, over.", said the voice from the Raccoon Police Department Dispatch Office.  
"This is Romeo-1-2-8, what is it Dispatch, over?", answered Caulk using the CB Radio in the squad car from the passenger seat.  
"Romeo-1-2-8, a situation has developed over at Raccoon City Square, there are reported injuries and a hostile suspect, proceed with caution, report there on the double. Go full siren, over.", said Dispatch.  
"Roger that Dispatch, on our way, over and out.", responded Caulk. Lewell hit the lights and turned on the siren and went through the red light, the Crown Victoria's wheels screeching through the intersection while other cars were hitting the brakes to a loud stop in the intersection.  
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It took less than a minute to get to the Square. The RPD squad car, with its white paint job in the middle and black paint job on each end of the car, it's short radio antennae whipping in the air and loud sirens, screeched to a stop at the sidewalk to the Square. The two Police Officers go out of the car, leaving the strobes flashing and ran to the commotion near the center of the Square.  
"What's happened, what's happened", asked Officer Lewell to anyone and everyone that was running and screaming by him when one woman stopped and started to speak fast to him.  
"A guy was attacked by, by a zombie or something I think over there" she said pointing over toward an alley.  
"Thank you, now get out of here" he said to the woman and turned to Caulk, "Let's go!"  
The two of them ran to the alley, avoiding the many people that were running into them at full speed. When the two got near the alley, they both stopped at right in their tracks and gaped at the site before them.  
There was a man, tall, down on the ground face up, bleeding from the neck in a pool of his own blood, twitching. A rotten body figure was atop a another body that was wearing a business suit face down on the ground, while it ate the man's head and neck and what looked like part of its back too.  
The two officers quickly, on instinct, drew their weapons and pointed them at the rotting man that was eating the man.  
"Freeze!" said Officer Caulk, "Step away from the body and put your hands up, now!"  
The zombie, looking up from his "business" meal, started to get up, with blood dripping from its partially broken mouth and blood from what seemed from the two victims all over his clothing and hands, well, actually one hand, that he had.   
"Holy SH#T!" said Lewell, "His intestines are hanging out from his stomach, his mouth is about to fall off!"  
"I see, I see!" replied Caulk, "His face looks like its burnt or something." Realizing that the 'thing' was approaching them he turned from looking at Lewell to it.  
"Don't take another step buddy!" said Caulk, "Lewell, aim at the leg if is doesn't stop, OK?"  
"Sure Boss." Said Lewell.  
But the zombie didn't stop, but rather started to move faster toward Caulk, again, its' arms outstretched toward him.  
"He doesn't look like he's listening to you!" said Lewell.  
"I know, I know." Responded Caulk to Lewell, and tried one more time to stop the thing from going any closer. "Don't go any closer or I'll shoot!"  
But the zombie didn't heed his warning and kept moving toward Caulk, now only less than five feet from him. People were close by, watching the situation at a safe distance, as the zombie got closer to the officers. Just then, the zombie practically jumped at Caulk. Caulk backed up but the zombie fell, catching him at the lower part of his torso.  
Lewell, on his instinct, shot three times at the zombie. The fist shot missed and hit a chair nearby, shattering one of it's leg. The second shot hit it in the torso, the third shot hit the zombie in its right leg since he was to Caulk's right.  
The zombie took a bite at Caulk's stomach, but his bulletproof vest stop the bite from penetrating, but the zombie was undaunted and went to Caulk's thigh and took a bite, rupturing his groin artery near the thigh.   
Lewell watched in horror as his partner was bleeding to death right in front of him and went to fire at it when Caulk yelled.  
"No you idiot, you'll probably hit me instead." Yelled Caulk to Lewell, as he grabbed his gun near him and aimed at the head of the zombie and fired, blowing parts of its rotted brain, blood, bones, and rotting skin on Caulk and his uniform and near the sidewalk near him.  
Lewell ran over to Caulk, just as an ambulance arrived near their parked squad car. Lewell pushed the partial headless zombie off Caulk and helped his partner up sit up as ambulance worker came over to the medical needs of Caulk. The other EMS worker ran over to Lewell and asked if he was injured.  
"No, I'm alright, but you better go check on those two over there." Said Lewell, pointing to the other two bodies while the EMS worker nodded and ran over to the nearest body.   
Another squad car came screeching to a halt near the other squad car and ambulance, the officers came out of the car and ran over to the other two officers. One of the Officers radioed for a morgue van as the EMS worker informed the officers that the two men that had been attacked were dead.   
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A van pulled up to the scene marked "MORGUE" and pulled out two body bags from the back and the workers went to the bodies and started to prepare the bodies for the bags. It was 3:45 pm when the bodies were loaded onto the van and it pulled away to the Morgue at the Raccoon Police Department where it was located. Officer Caulk had been taken away to the hospital earlier for better care and Officer Lewell stayed behind to write up his report on the call and the situation that occurred to his Commander and the Chief.  
  
IT STARTS TO SPREAD  
  
Officer Caulk had been doped up with antibiotics in case there was an infection from the bite near his groin. The doctor at Raccoon City Hospital had told him that he would need to stay in the hospital for a few more days for further testing and anything else that may arouse from the bite.  
It was about 4:30 pm when his partner, Lewell came by to see how he was doing.   
"So, how ya doing?" asked Lewell in the white sterile room his partner was staying in while laying in his stiff hospital bed.  
"Doctor says that I'll be fine, just need some rest and medicine," replied Caulk, "they asked me if I wanted to try out a new antibiotic drug from Umbrella, I said no."  
"Hey," said Lewell, "ain't that company that was involved in that Raccoon Forest thing with the mansion and STARS?"  
"Yeah, come to think of it-AARRGHH!!" said Caulk suddenly.  
"Whoa, what's wrong buddy? Should I get a doctor?"  
"No," Caulk said, "just a splitting headache I had since that son of a b%#$h bit me. Nothing a few aspirins can't stop."  
"You got any by the way?" asked Lewell.  
"Yeah, they're in the draw over there." Said Caulk pointing to a desk draw in the corner of the room.  
Lewell walked over to it and retrieved the aspirin bottle and took a few out and went over to the nearby sink and filled a cup of water. He then walked back to his partner's bed and gave him two aspirins and water.  
"Here bud," said Lewell, giving him the aspirins and water as Caulk sat up in the bed. "so, how's the wound?"  
"Thanks," said Caulk as he took the cup and aspirins from him. "Looks real weird" he said, lifting the hospital gown to show the wound. It was weird in deed, it was all brown and an icky color around it on the skin, but he couldn't see much it, was covered with a bandage.   
"AARRGGHH!!!", yelled Caulk in a loud mix of a moan and scream, instantly dropping the cup on the floor, shattering on impact with the aspirins falling less than a second later.  
Caulk grabbed his head in an expression of pain, still screaming in agony. To Lewell, it seemed and Caulk's head was growing or moving. He immediately left the room screaming for a doctor to get to the room.  
Caulk's head felt like it was going to explode from the excruciating pain from inside head. He thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head from the pressure he was feeling from in his head, he then felt everything go into a daze and heard voices, but wasn't sure, then everything felt like it went into a dream and then he passed out, or so he thought he did.  
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Lewell watched as the doctor came running down the hallway with two nurses short behind him, his white coat was blowing behind him like a cape. Lewell looked back at Caulk and saw he was getting out of the bed, still holding his head and moaning. Lewell decided to leave from the doorway and go see if he could help his friend, but as he got closer to him, he was socked by horror of what he saw. His friends' eyes were greenish and his nose was bleeding the same green color liquid. Lewell backed up a few steps when Caulk looked up at him , his mouth opened, and Caulk's gums were bleeding both blood and that same green liquid. But, as suddenly as Lewell saw the green substance before in Caulk's nostrils and eyes, it turned to a both green and dark purple color. Then Caulk just collapsed to the floor, that liquid goo spreading around Caulk from his mucus glands as it was excreted from his body.  
Just then the doctor came into the room, pushing Lewell aside with the two nurses following the doctor. The doctor turned Caulk from his face down position on the floor until he was facing up at the ceiling. The doctor gasped for a second and quickly regained his composure, while one of the nurses backed up a little from the site. One of Caulk's eyes was completely, from what it looked like to the doctor, melted or degraded in the socket. And his skin was turning a green purple color, then a brown dead color, afar from the normal tan color it should've been.  
He checked his pulse, there was none, then his breathing, none, he then had to perform mouth to mouth, while the nurse went to get the Code Blue machine when he then noticed a foamy liquid form at Caulk's mouth. The doctor, an 18-year veteran of Raccoon Hospital, had never seen anything like this, he then opened, with some resistance, Caulk's mouth. He then ran his two fingers, from his hand with surgical glove along the inside of Caulk's mouth of any obstructions and was about to pull back his tongue, when Caulk bit off the doctor's fingers. The doctor jumped back on the floor screaming while looking at his bleeding hand, now with two stubs that were spurting blood along his white coat and on the tile floor.   
One of the nurses screamed and ran out of the room while the other nurse was knocked down in the hallway, dropping the reviver, confused by what was happening. Caulk then got up from the floor in the pool of the green purple ooze he was just laying in and preceeded to go after the doctor. The doctor was scrambling to his feet, but slipped in his own blood and fell back down to the floor, the zombie was now only a measly 2-3 feet from him. Caulk then attacked him, biting his left shoulder. The doctor, in a state of panic, tried to fight Caulk off, he went to gouge out his eyes but when he did his fingers just punched through Caulk's left eye and it felt squishy inside. The doctor then went to scratch his face and instead ripped of a piece of rotten flesh from his cheek, spilling blood and an icky ooze on the doctor and his wound.  
Lewell was in a state of shock, 'Caulk had just bitten the doctor's fingers off, just like the same thing that had bit Caulk earlier' Lewell thought to himself. He went to help the doctor up when the doctor slipped on the blood and just then the Caulk lunged at the doctor and bit him on the shoulder, there was a shower of blood on Lewell himself and all over the room, the walls, ceiling, floor. Then what he saw was unbelievable, the doctor scratched the Caulk's face and ripped off a piece of rotten flesh, with blood coming out on the doctor.  
Caulk then continued to eat the doctor while he was in shock from ripping off the flesh still holding it in his hand, he then passed out from the pain and the shock. Lewell decided to stop Caulk, he picked up a bed pan, ran over to Caulk and wacked him across the head, sending Caulk flying across the floor with more blood spilling from a new head wound.   
Caulk didn't move after that so Lewell decided to see if he was still alive. He went over and checked for a pulse, none.  
"Man, buddy, what happened to you?" he said to no one particularly. "I told you not to smoke that-AAGGHH!!! NNNOOO!!!!" Lewell screamed as Caulk had suddenly jumped up, attacking Lewell, biting him on the arm as Lewell tried to defend himself. The blood from the wound was soaking his police officer's uniform he was still wearing.  
Lewell picked up his leg and kicked Caulk straight into his chest, Caulk went sliding across the room, hitting the wall by the window. Lewell then scrambled off the floor, running to the door but had slipped in the doctor's blood, falling face first in the blood breaking his nose on the tile floor. He tried to get up but his hands slipped on the bloody floor, sending him back to the floor and splitting his lip and creating a bruise and knocking him out into unconscious on the floor. The last thing he saw was the doctor's dead wide eyed face staring at him, then heard a low moaning and shuffling, his bit arm felt like it was burning, then it went all black.  
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Caulk, still with a faint trace of thought turning in his dead brain, was slowly getting up from the wall by the window, knowing that he had to help his partner, Lewell. But, as he came closer, he smelt the blood and flesh, and his little left thought diminished and he went for the flesh, immediately dropping to the floor. He began to eat Lewell's back and spinal cord and then began to eat his kidneys, slowly devouring the flesh, inert to the running shoes from the hallway.  
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Two hospital security guards were just getting out of the elevator as the doors opened and they saw chaos. Everyone was running and screaming, they both stepped out of the elevator and were almost knocked down by a nurse that had blood on her uniform.  
"Whoa, slow down there", said one of the security guards, grabbing the nurse by the shoulders.  
"Doc...Doctor, he was attacked by the patient," the nurse said, pointing to the room where Caulk was, "it...it bit him on the shoulder, blood, blood everywhere!" She then ran away down the opposite hall, disappearing.  
"We better go check it out, and fast!" said the other security guard.  
They both hurried down the hallway, slowing as they were three doors away, withdrawing their Magnum Desert Eagles .50, taking off the safety. As they grew near the room they heard a munching, squishing noise. When they entered the room, they were in dismay. There was blood EVERYWHERE!!! There was guts and blood on the white and green tile floor, on the bright white walls and the black specked ceiling. And in the middle of the room, lay Caulk eating away at Lewell's body, blood all over his hospital gown and face and hands. The doctor lay three feet away, facing up with his shoulder ripped opened, blood all around his body.  
"What the..." said one of the security guards at the horror before both of them. He was in a sort of shocked daze, just staring at the man eating away at the body.  
"SNAP OUT OF IT!!!" said the other security guard, bringing the other one back to reality. "Get your gun aimed at him," he said again, now turning back to Caulk, "You, slowly get up and step away from the body, NOW!"  
It started to get up, slowly looking at the two security guards with its one eye, then...  
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Caulk had partially heard the two guards come in, but he had paid no attention to them, concentrating, if that is possible with zombie standards at all, on Lewell's body, particularly his Gall Bladder and Spleen. His wound and previous Hemorrhaging had continued, almost completely draining his body of blood, but instead of his skin turning pale, the T-Virus had caused his skin to turn brown and musty like.   
When one of the security guards yelled something that had sounded garbled to Caulk, because his brain was literally dieing along with his body and disintegrating organs, he decided, if possible, to discontinue his "dessert" and start on beginning his "main course". He then started to get up when...  
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BOOM!!!!! The security guard that had been in daze before, fired his gun right at Caulk, hitting him in his lower right torso. Caulk stumbled backwards from the power of the Magnum, then tripped on the doctor's body, falling down, breaking his rotted skull on the floor. Caulk's brains were splattered on the floor from the opening from his skull that cracked open on impact.   
The two security guards rushed over to Caulk. Once reaching his dead and rotting body, they just stared at it for a few seconds. Then the youngest one of the security duo bent down to check Caulk's pulse. As he put his two fingers to the side of Caulk's neck, Caulk's hand caught the security guards forearm, pulling him down. The other security guard immediately fired into Caulk's face, pumping six bullets into his face, decimating it into a bloody pulp on the floor.  
The other security guard just plopped down on the floor next to Caulk's body due to shock, but just then remembered how he had had come back to life, then decided to back up a little more.   
The other security guard sat down on the hospital bed, slouching, staring at the three bodies on the floor, the doctor's, a cop, and the patient, and wondered what had happened. He then heard police sirens getting louder as they came closer to the hospital and thought that the police can figure out what happened, he was too tired.  
  
THE ATTACKS CONTINUE  
  
Later that day, at about seven o'clock pm, after the horrible incident, Lieutenant Joseph Viota turned his green beat up '90 Chevrolet Prizm into the parking entrance of the Raccoon Police Department, the sun was just about gone with all its radiance, the TV news headlines stuck in his head. 'Three Dead At Raccoon Hospital!', 'Gruesome Deaths At Hospital', 'Two Cops & Doctor Die A Bloody Death'. He drove his car into an empty parking spot in the underground garage of the RPD station, it was his lucky day, usually there was never any spaces in the lot.   
There was one particular article he read in the paper, he hadn't heard the details or read the police reports(it was his day off yesterday, so he slept the whole day and night, he been pulling a double for the past few days). It had said that three dead bodies were mutilated at the hospital, bitten and rotting, apparently one of the dead bodies had attacked a doctor and a cop, and the attacker was a cop himself. He knew Caulk, had known him since High School, it had been sad news when he found out he was dead, even worse when he heard he had been the one who had bitten the doc and cop.   
He locked his car and left the garage and went to the Weapons Room to check in his gun. The uniformed officer with the key card for the armored door, the only one with the card, checked his ID, even though he knew Lt. Viota, signed him in and let him enter the room. He signed in his gun, signed his name and left the room, waving to the officer as he walked down the musky hall, the Department never fixed the lighting in this basement, despite the many complaints by the other officers. He walked toward the end of the basement hallway to the Autopsy Room, holstering his weapon, while he then entered. He was in charge of the Autopsy Room and Medicine Room, but he mostly spent his time in the East Wing of the station, checking in every once in awhile.  
The bodies were brought here to the station reason being that the workers at the hospital were too afraid and shaken up still over the accident, so, the only other option was the police station. As he entered the room, he saw the three bodies laid out, one was on a gurney against the left wall, one was on the autopsy table, and the other one was on a gurney, still in the body bag.  
Viota walked up to the ME(Medical Examiner) on duty. Lt. Viota knew the ME, Doctor Melissa Cornwell, he went to High School with her, went out once with her. He said his hello and she said hers and saw that she had already cut opened the first body.   
"So," said Viota, "Caulk is the lucky man that gets to have a night out with you?"  
"He's not so lucky", responded Melissa, "I have already cut open his torso and noticed a few strange things."  
"And?" said Viota, waiting patiently while she continued her work.  
"His organs have almost completely melted or decomposed, "Melissa continued, "those that are not, seem to be changing."   
"What!?!' Viota said, he did take a few years of Medical School and he knew that organs don't start to decompose until after a few days, at least.  
"Yeah," Melissa replied, "also, his body is decomposing, but not decomposing."  
"Huh?" Viota said.  
"His body is decomposing, but its not, his skin and muscles are dying but are still alive." She paused, and looked up at Viota, seeing his face a mask of confusion, she continued. "He's dead, but earlier, he was still alive and dying at the same time, his body has been decomposing for the past three to four hours, but he was still alive."  
"So, he was dead, but still kicking." Said Viota more as a statement then a question.  
"More like the Walking Dead, if I can say so soon already." She said as she continued to examine Caulk's body.  
"Or the Living Dead." Viota said as he left the room, leaving Melissa to finish her work.  
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Lt. Viota sat down at his desk in the East Wing Offices in the station, checking his messages or any new memos. After checking his messages with none of imminent response, he finished with polishing up the report that was due tomorrow about the recent issue of better medical equipment for the Raccoon Police personnel.  
He finished up the report and put it in the box on the door to the Commanding Officer's Office only located a few yards from his own desk. He decided to get himself a coffee, so he got up and went over to the coffee machine in the corner of the office. The coffee pot was empty. He almost slammed down the pot in disgust, but didn't, thinking better of it. He made up his mind, he had to go to the office in the West Wing on the first floor, known to most of the officers as the "Deskette Room" because of the so many desks in the office.  
He took his favorite mug with the picture of all the gang of "Tenchi Muyo!" and walked to the Main Lobby. It was unusually busy at this time of day, it was about seven thirty only, it must've been about the incident at the hospital earlier. Everybody was scared and worried about what happened, why it had had happened period!  
He just kept walking past all the commotion, humming the "Ghostbusters" song to himself as he walked over the RPD emblem rug in that's been there as long as he remembered, he wondered if they ever changed it, from wear and tear, he'll have to ask, he thought. He got to the "Deskette Room" door and just as he was about to open it, when gunfire erupted from somewhere. Everyone went quiet, no screaming, crying, yelling, nothing, just quiet. Then more gunfire this time, four shots he counted, he then figured out they were coming from the East Office section of the building, he quickly started to run back where he had just come from, pushing by people in his way. He jotted up the small staircase for the front entrance and made a left to the East Office doorway. He opened the doorway and saw other officers running through the doorway to the East Offices, he followed in short pursuit, running past the bank of payphones through the doorway.   
Everyone was getting up from their desks, someone got up, but just stood there at their desk, staring at everyone running by, not sure if they should go too, or not. Viota continued to the door to the basement stairs, running down the "Yellow Hallway", as it was called in the station(he always wondered how the police station had nicknames for certain parts of the building, it made it seem interesting to him his job). He saw the officer that was at the Night Duty room on call come out by the stairs and immediately ran over to him, George, he thought his name was.  
"Hey", said Viota, "Stand the stairs, make sure no one unauthorized comes or goes, alright?"  
"Ye...Yes Sir!" the officer replied nervously.  
"And, yeah, take my mug", said Viota, remembering he still had it in his hand all this time, "don't break or I'll have your head!"  
"Yes Sir!" the officer answered.  
Viota left the officer standing at the top of the stairs and continued down the stairs. Once he got down, he made left and ran down the walkway and stopped in the middle of the basement hallway, trying to figure out where the gunfire came from. He then saw to his left, the Autopsy doors were open and all the officers were standing in the doorway, shock on their faces. Viota rushed over to the room and entered and saw what was wrong...  
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Melissa took a break a few minutes after Lt. Viota left. She went over to the garage to get a cup of coffee since they took the coffee machine out of the Autopsy Room for use in the lobby after some idiot guest broke it. She went into the garage over to the coffee machine and prepared herself a cup, watching as the squad cars were pulling in and leaving with the change of shift for the night call.   
After she finished, she left the garage with her lab coat blowing from the breeze that was coming from the open shutter for the garage. She went back to the Autopsy Room, brushing past a few officers on the way. She put the cup of coffee down on the metal desk that was in the corner of the room with all her files and the network phone. She went back to Caulk's body, she finished up any last touches needed and put him on "ice"(she put his body in the freezer lockers). She then brought the Doctor's body that was on a gurney along the wall to the autopsy table. She then prepared her "tools" for use on the body.  
She examined the body and the wounds that were caused by Caulk. The wounds were developing puss, which was not possible since the enzymes that do that and cause clots are dead, along with the body, so, no antibodies were alive to attack the foreign bodies. She then proceeded to open the wound on his left shoulder, separating the skin with tweezers, blood that clotted the wound, broke and blood spilt out onto the table. She let the blood stop flowing out of the wound and then, with a scalpel, "poked" around inside the wound. Just then, his left arm flew up, hitting Melissa in the back, she jumped back, gathering her thoughts. It was just a reflex, a muscle spasm from the rigor mortis, 'I could never get use to that' she thought as she went back to the autopsy table to finish her work.   
She checked her watch, it had been eight minutes since she started to work on the Doctor's body. She stopped, stretched a little, and continued on. She had finished checking the wounds, realizing that something was wrong the Doctor's blood, it was changing or different, she reminded herself to send a sample to the Center for Disease Control(CDC) for further examination by professionals. She then went to check his saliva glands and any bled gums, thinking might the accident was caused by Ebola, with the bleeding eyes and mucus glands in all the victims bodies that were its effects that were just about the same as in the hospital.  
There were no bled gums or anything else, which even confused her more. She turned to get the scalpel to open up the Doctor's stomach to check for any parasites dwelling inside and then just then, out or the corner of her eye, she saw the Doctor's body jump up, at her! At first, she thought she was seeing things, or was just a spasm, but she soon realized she was wrong when she felt the pain of the Doctor biting into her right arm, ripping a piece of flesh off her arm.  
She stumbled back, falling on her back, grabbing at her arm, desperately trying to stop the bleeding. The doctor, trying to get at her, fell off the operating table and fell onto the hard cement floor, making a cracking smack sound in the room. Melissa tried to push herself away, but instead, pushed herself into the wall, hard. Her head hit the wall hard and she was dazed for a sec, her vision went fuzzy for a sec and when she opened her eyes, the doctor was lunging at her, mouth gaping, with drool coming out. Melissa threw her right leg into the Doctor's face, sending blood from the kick flying. She then got up, rushing to the door, but the Doctor while he was trying to get, used the cart by the table to get up, but instead, he toppled it over, sending the cutting utensils all over the floor.   
Melissa tripped over the fallen cart and she went face down onto the floor, breaking her jaw with the sound of sinew breaking and snapping. The Doctor was crawling at her with at a fast speed, she looked around for a weapon to use and saw a scalpel nearby and grabbed it. By then, he was atop of her and she stabbed him in the neck with the scalpel, blood spurting from the opening all over. She just lied there, watching as he paused for a moment and then attacked Melissa. He bit her on the thigh, severing the main artery, blood spilling on her and the floor. She screamed in agony and pain from the wound and then frantically kicked at the Doctor, but he just came at her and bit her on the neck. She then felt woozy and fuzzy and the last thing she remembered was a police officer opening the doors too the Autopsy Room near her head and she died.  
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Officer Mack Kelly had been the standing officer of the Weapons Room for the night shift for the past three years with never an absent day ever. It was a nice position, it had its perks at times, but it was usually normal and calm. He was listening to the radio tuned to a game when he heard a crash from the Autopsy Room. At first he was doubtful he even heard anything, but he turn down the volume on the radio to a near mute and listened. He listened for a minute, the basement was very quiet except for a few squad cars leaving and entering the garage and the slight noise from the first floor of the station, but other than that, it was quiet to a pin drop.  
He then heard a bang and then shuffling, then a moan. He decided to go check it out. He got up from his seat and was walking to the Autopsy Room when he heard a woman scream in pain from the room. He instantly ran to the Autopsy Room and got to there in less than ten seconds. He threw open the doors and stopped, he looked down and saw the ME Melissa on the floor bleeding extensively from her neck and thigh and her right arm from what he could see.   
A person was atop of her, eating her body. He was stunned for a few seconds, but then withdrew his Berretta 92FS, given to only those who are officers for the Weapons Room for its shorter barrel for easier withdraw and aimed it at the thing eating the doctor.  
"Step away from the Doctor immediately!" Officer Kelly said to the thing.  
The Doctor still had some brain activity or habits and was used to being called Doctor and thought that Officer Kelly was calling for him. He got up and started to go at Kelly with a moan and a slight limp.   
Officer Kelly didn't know what to do. He was never trained for this. This "thing" ate the Doctor and was going after him now! Officer Kelly aimed his gun at the Doctor.  
"Don't move or I'll shoot!" Officer Kelly said to the Doctor.  
But the Doctor didn't listen, couldn't listen and kept on walking to Kelly when he tripped on Melissa's body and seemingly lunged at Kelly. Officer Kelly thought the Doctor was attacking him when he lunged at him and fired off three shots into him. One hit him in the left shoulder, the second hit in the lower right torso and the third hit a body bag in the corner of the room.  
But the shots didn't stop the Doctor and he just kept coming at Kelly. Kelly instinctively backed up a few steps, hitting the doors of the room, his body motion opening the doors. He was in the hallway now, with left swinging door up against his left shoulder, keeping it open. He raised his gun at the Doctor and repeated again the same warning.  
"Don't move or I'll shoot again!" Officer Kelly said again, "DON'T MOVE!"  
By then the Doctor was over Melissa's body and was nearing the door entrance, still seemingly un-dazed or hurt from the two shots and drooling tremendously from the mouth and his skin was turning a icky color. Officer Kelly had no choice for his safety and fired four shots point blank into him. The first two shots hit him in his chest, at such a close range they caused relatively big openings. The third shot hit him the head, above his right eye with no exit wound. The fourth shot hit in the neck exiting near his spinal cord on the back of his neck.  
The Doctor fell to the floor, dead except for a twitch every so often. Officer Kelly stood there in the hallway with the door against his shoulder and his gun pointed at a 45degree angle to the floor. By then he heard footsteps rushing down the basement stairs, Kelly bent down to the Doctor's body and checked for a pulse, nothing, which he predicted and went over to Melissa's body. She was a mess, blood all over her white coat and face. There was a rather large pool of her own blood around her and he checked for a pulse, none either.  
Three officers came rushing to the room, stopping at the Doctor's body in the hallway. Kelly got up and went to stand in the hallway, leaving Melissa's body. By now there was about eight officers in the hallway with three in the Autopsy Room. The Commander-In-Charge of the Autopsy Room finally got to the Autopsy Room and saw what had happened. He immediately asked what happened and Kelly told him exactly what had had happened. Kelly specifically told him about how he shot him two times and he just kept going at him and finally hit him in the head and "died".  
Kelly was told to go get some water and relax after what happened. After telling Lt. Viota what had happened, he left immediately to get some water. Lt. Viota examined the two bodies closely and came to the conclusion that what had happened here was the same thing that happened at the hospital. 'What was happening today?' he thought to himself. Then he realized that if this happened to the Doctor, then it will happen to the other victim from the hospital, Officer Lewell! He immediately turned to the officers and said "You guys, get that body bag over there and secure! NOW!"   
Two officers went over to the body bag, and confused, just stood there. One of them asked "What are we suppose to do, huh?" Lt. Viota never thought of that and said "If you see any movement, immediately back away and notify me". The two officers just shrugged and just stood there, occasionally looking at the body bag.  
Lt. Viota told two other officers to go get the Morgue workers here immediately. Viota then went to Melissa's body and looked it over, 'what a bad way to die' he thought to himself. He then closed her dead staring eyes and got up. He then left to ask Officer Kelly some more questions on what happened.  
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"Who's in this bag anyway?" One of the officers on guard of the body bag asked the other one ten minutes after Viota left, with only a handful of other officers still there in the room.  
"How the hell should I know." The other one replied, looking down at the bag too.  
"Open it then." Said the other Officer.  
"You're the one that wants to know, you do it!" The other officer said back.  
"Fine" he said and went to open the body bag. He unzipped the bag down to the neck and separated the bag, giving access to the body's face.   
"Whoa!", he said and looked up at the other officer, "It's Lewell!"  
"It is!?!" He replied.  
"Damn, man, what a way to die."  
The officer started to zip up the bag when Lewell suddenly jumped in the body bag. The two officers immediately jumped back from the body bag and took out their guns, both had Glock 21's, and took them off of safe. The body bag then stopped moving and they went closer to the bag, cautiously approaching. One of the officers peered downward into the bag, his gun pointing down, looking for any movement when the bag jumped off the table and fell onto the floor. The two officers jumped back, then three other officers outside in the basement came into the room hearing the noise, them too with their guns drawn. One of them told one of the officers still in the hallway to go get Lt. Viota and that person immediately left.  
The two officers backed toward the entrance of the Autopsy Room and stopped near the other three officers and looked back the body bag that was moving on the concrete floor. Officer Lewell started to make his way out of the body bag, the zipper opening ever so more. When half of his body was out of the bag, he used his arms to crawl across the floor toward the group of officers, his arm bleeding goo and blood along the floor. By then, the group of officers had their station issued guns out, all Glock 21's, with their safeties off and loaded with their 10-shot magazine, aimed at Lewell as he came ever so closer to them.  
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Lt. Viota was questioning Officer Kelly in the Night Duty Room near the basement stairs when an officer came in a sudden rush and noise.  
"Lt. Viota, you have to get to the Autopsy Room NOW!" said the officer.  
"Alright", he said to the officer getting up from his seat with Officer Kelly, he immediately knew what was happening.  
"Kelly, go with this officer and get the Commander and tell him to get to the Autopsy Room, fast!", he said to him and left the room toward the basement stairs while he withdrew his Walther P99, checking its ten-shot magazine, an old habit, and reloading it.  
When Lt. Viota got to the Autopsy Room, the once RPD officer, Lewell, was up and walking around in the Autopsy Room, stumbling upon himself, while the rest of the officers were just standing there, not moving at all. Lewell's arm looked like it was about to fall off and as he turned his back to Viota, it was completely mangled and his spinal cord could clearly be seen. He then turned to the officers and, in a low enough voice so that they could hear him, but now Lewell, he said.  
"You two", he said, pointing to two of the officers that had originally been in the hallway before, "go back out into the hallway and stay there with your guns. It that thing that gets past us and out there, shoot it, understand?"  
The two officers just nodded their heads and left the room quietly and went out into the hallway. Lt. Viota then turned to the two remaining officers that had been assigned by him to the body bags, and asked them.  
"What happened, and quick?" he said to them.  
"I...I opened the bag to see who it was and then it went to attack me and I jumped back and fe-fell to the floor." The officer replied to him.  
"It then got out of the bag and started to walk around, it seemed to us, and the other two officers, that it didn't know we were here, and we just stood here, not moving until you came not long after, sir."  
Lt. Viota cursed himself for such stupid officers and than went on, "Alright, you two go to the two corners of the room by the doors and aim at it", he aid, pointing to Lewell, "I'll take the middle, ok?" Both officers nodded and went to their places and aimed their guns. Lt. Viota went toward the middle of the room, putting the gurney between him and Lewell, who was by the cabinet in the corner of the room.  
Lt. Viota knew Lewell was dead, but with recent events in other major cities of police officers just shooting people without asking them questions or telling them to stop or freeze, he said.  
"Don't move!" he said to Lewell, "put your hands up in the air and come out of the corner slowly." Lewell did come out of the corner slowly, but he sure didn't put his hands up. He continued to come out, picking up his pace toward Lt. Viota, who once again told him put his hands up, and knew it was a futile gesture to Lewell, but he knew he had to do it.  
Lewell still didn't heed to Lt. Viota orders and just kept coming toward him, he then put his hands up, but not all the way, only to mid-chest and started to "power walk" to Lt. Viota. Lt. Viota saw him and pushed the gurney into him and turned and ran to the doors, looking at both officers who were scared with their guns shaking. Lt. Viota then reached the doors and turned around only to see Lewell less than five feet from him, the gurney his pushed into him missed and Lewell still continued after him, that was why the officers were scared.  
Lt. Viota put his gun up, but it was too late, Lewell jumped at him, pushing up Lt. Viota's arms into the air just as Viota pulled the trigger, firing into the florescent light on the ceiling, shattering it with glass all over the floor and putting the left side of the room into partial darkeness. When Lewell attacked Viota, Viota moved his head toward Lewell, causing Lewell to bite his right cheek off instead of his original target of his neck. Lewell bit off a piece of Viota's cheek and face, revealing some of Viota's teeth and cheek bone, splattering blood onto Viota, Lewell and the officer in the right corner of the room, who was frozen from being scared at the site. The other officer didn't know what was happening from dark and his view and aimed his gun at Lewell's torso and fired off three shots, all three hitting the Lewell's torso, which stopped Lewell from attacking Viota and went toward the officer who shot at him.   
Viota's body fell to the floor, bleeding extensively, but he was still alive as he watched Lewell start toward the officer. The officer saw Lewell going toward him and started firing at him at his chest with him only a few feet away, but it didn't stop him and the officer emptied his entire clip of his Glock 21 into Lewell and he kept coming. He desperately tried to reload his gun, dropping the empty clip to the floor and withdrew a fresh one from his belt and loaded the Glock and looked up just as Lewell lunged at him and the officer jumped to his left crashing onto the floor, sending Lewell falling onto the body bags in the corner where the officer had just been.  
The officer looked over to the other corner where the other officer was and saw him just staring at Lewell and yelled to him.  
"Don't just stand there, SHOOT IT!" he said to the officer and then turned back to Lewell who was getting up from the body bags and started to turn to the officer again when he started shooting at Lewell while he was still on the floor, aiming up at him and pulling the trigger over and over at Lewell. The other officer started to shoot at Lewell too, pumping his entire clip into Lewell with Lt. Viota that was on the floor and still conscious shooting at Lewell too, but soon after firing, collapsed from shock. But Lewell still kept coming!   
Both officers' clips were empty and were reloading just as Lewell was about to pounce onto the officer on the floor, as he was looking down at his gun crawling away when the Autopsy Room doors burst open and a load shot was fired. The officer saw Lewell's body fall to the floor, a huge whole in his head and looked up at where the shot came from and saw the Commander standing there with his S&W 629 .44 Magnum, which was a standard for all Commanders of the station, looking down at Lewell and then bent down to Lt. Viota's body, and checked his pulse, he was still alive.  
"Get a ambulance here fast and tell them to use the garage entrance." He said to the officers that had been in the hallway that were at the doors, one of them leaving immediately. He then turned to the officer on the floor who was getting up and then to the other one who had his empty gun pointed down and was just staring out into space, his mouth agape.  
The officer that had been on the floor immediately went over to the other body bags from and reloading his gun while going over. He finally reloaded his weapon and went to over to the body bag over by the wall and then saw a hole in the bag with blood spilling out, made by the stray bullet that Officer Kelly had previously fired and had missed at the Doctor. He then put the safety on his gun, and breathed a sigh of relief just as the Commander spoke.  
"Just what the Hell happened here Officer!?!?" the Commander said with his face inquisitive but also angry.  
"It's a long story sir, a long story...." the Officer said, letting his voice trail off.  
  
  
ENTRAPMENT  
  
Chief Brian Irons of the Raccoon City police Department was still perplexed by the Commander and the Officer's report of the incident in the Autopsy Room that happened earlier that day. He sat at his desk, staring at the wall with the Picasso-like picture with the "swirly" background of colors and female face. He was in his fifties, with a scraggy face and sagging cheeks. With a scruffy mustache and crow's feet under his eyes, he continued to think.  
The Commander and Officer were standing in front of the Chief desk for a while, with the Chief still staring at the wall and the picture. Chief Irons did not understand the possibility of the T-Virus or the G-Virus spreading in the city, let alone his police station! Umbrella had given him their word that this kind of situation would not happen, and now look! It was happening, and it was happening too fast for him to think.  
He finally turned around to the two law enforcers with his mind made up and spoke.  
"It seems that this incident was isolated in the police station, so....there seems to be no worry of whatever it is of spreading." The Chief said to the two.  
The two were confused, it wasn't isolated! 'The thing that brought it in the police station was from outside, did the Chief not know this?' the Commander thought to himself and was about to object when the Chief started to speak again.  
"As for the officer that was wounded by the 'zombie' in the Autopsy Room, is he in stable condition?" he said to the Commander looking at him.  
"Yes sir, he is. He was sent to Raccoon City Hospital for further care when the ambulance arrived." The Commander responded.  
"Good, good, make sure he gets the best care", he said, knowing what will happen to him just like the others, "Now I want you two notify everyone in the station that to continue as usual, that the 'the threat has been subdued', okay?"  
"Yes sir, I'll get right on it!" replied the Commander.  
"I'll be making a press announcement in a while. As for you officer," the Chief said to the Officer, as the Officer himself tensed up, preparing to be reprimanded, "that was good work you did earlier, if you hadn't reacted so well, many more could've died." The Chief said, knowing it was all a lie.  
"Tha-thank you sir!" was all the Officer could say, surprised by the approach of the Chief.  
"Very well, Commander, you know what to do, officer, continue on our shift, I wouldn't be surprised if there were any recommendations along the way." The Chief said, putting on a smile as best as he could.  
"Yes sir! Thank you sir!" the Officer said and left the room along with the Commander, who was still uncertain of the Chiefs' actions, but would obey.  
Once the Chief was sure that the two were well gone, he sat back in his leather backed chair, reflecting on the past events. He for certain that the officer, Officer Liota he was pretty sure it was, would turn into a zombie. He had seen first hand the effects of the T-Virus on humans, along with the G-Virus, and knew there was no help for him. He thought of posting a guard or two at Liota's door at the hospital for when he did "transform", but decided against it, knowing that if there were events starting already, then it was too late to save the city or prevent another incident from happening. Once the Virus was loose, there was no stopping it. And if his city went down, the people would go down with it. With that decided, he thought up his strategy to prevent the inevitable, or any efforts to receive outside help, a more evolved plan of entrapment he used often when he hunted....  
  
PUBLICIZED   
  
The Chief strolled out to the podium in the Press Conference Room in the police station. All the news organizations in the city, from the newspapers to the television stations, were there. Before he went in, he checked the log of those present of the press, to see if there was anyone from outside the city. He didn't want the outside world to know what was happening just yet, or else the military might overrun the city, taking over his beautiful city. After he checked the list twice and was certain that there was no one from outside the city, he went in.  
As he got stood up to the podium, with the cameras flashing and the cameras rolling, most likely live to the city, he raised his hand, signaling the press to quiet down. After they settled down, he began.  
"Ladies and gentlemen and the fine citizens of Raccoon City. The earlier incidents that took place in the Raccoon City Hospital and the Raccoon City Police Station were those of transpondent occurrences. These threats were contained and quarantined within the hospital and the police station thanks to the efforts of the officers of Raccoon City", Chief Irons said with a pride smile on his face and continued.  
"These 'emergencies', and I use the term loosely, were determined to be caused by a mutant strain of the Ebola Virus only found in the North African Sahara Desert." Those in the press room gasped at this but quieted down immediately as the Chief continued. "But don't be alarmed, the Virus can only be transmitted by the physical exchange of blood of the infected victim to another person. Those that were infected were, unfortunately, were killed after they had attacked nearby persons. Those bodies infected have been quarantined off from further spreading beyond the area." He paused and then continued. "Blood and tissue samples were gathered and have been sent to the Center for Disease Control for further analysis. As for how the strain of the Ebola virus made its way here to Raccoon City is still unclear.  
"The Raccoon City Police Department is taking precautions in case of another incident should occur, but I highly doubt it," he said, but knew better, "he virus has been known to only exist for a few days and then die out, such as I have said happened. I ask you, the citizens of our dear Raccoon City, do not be alarmed by these occurrences, and if you feel sick, do not rush to the hospital, causing and dear emergencies among others. Such actions will ultimately lead to accidents and perhaps far worse. If you do feel sick, do stay home for a few days to discover the symptoms and please do not jump to conclusions." The Chief's plan was getting in motion, doing everything to defer anyone of preventing the virus from spreading.  
"I ask that businesses continue as usual and the people will continue as usual, do not let these incidents from stopping or slowing you down, they have been stopped and the danger, if there ever was one, has been stopped. Thank you ladies and gentlemen." The Chief concluded and left the podium, while the camera rolled and flashed with questions asked while he left the Press Room.  
The Chief went to his office and sat in his chair. He plan was going along accordingly, he had successfully duped the press and most likely the people too. He had already taken care of the police, putting into action set plans that would doom the police if another incident happened. The police would be delayed in getting to a scene or would not know how to react. 'Soon, the telephone system will go down next, not too soon, but soon' he thought to himself.  
He sat back in his chair and decided to call in his secretary and yell at her about something, she did seem a little elusive lately and suspicious too. Now all he had to is just wait and watch his city fall....  
  
BUSINESS AS USUAL  
  
The next day after the Chief's announcement, everyone continued as usual, but still cautious. Businesses opened and people went to work. There were no reports or calls to the police of anything that resembled of the previous incidents.  
Two days after the first incidents, Chief Irons was in his office on the second floor of the Police Station. He was reviewing the past two days reports so far, and had noticed there was no reports or mentions of any kind on anything similar to the T-Virus symptoms. He found one about an officer who had discovered a person in the sewers. The subject ran, but left behind some C4 Explosives with a detonator, a broken Infrared scope and some 9mm bullets. 'Wonder who or what that was, those Umbrella imbeciles are probably up to something again!' he thought to himself as he continued to mill through the reports.  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
Near the warehouse district of Raccoon City, was located a factory that manufactured various engines and engines parts for use on aircraft and ground vehicles. The Foreman at the factory had been expecting a shipment of raw material and desperately needed parts for the factory, but was delayed by the incidents two days ago.   
It was nearing pitch dark in Raccoon City, as the Foreman received a radio message that informed him that the shipment would arrive via helicopter instead of truck in two hours, and it was already nearing eight o'clock. The Foreman acknowledged the message and made preparations for the helicopter landing soon.   
With the lack of materials to keep the machinery working in the factory and the power supply, the generator couldn't have picked a better time shut down.  
It was about 9:45 pm when the main generator just shut off, plunging the whole factory into darkness. The back-up generator didn't kick in because it was undergoing repairs. The once "lit up like a Christmas tree" helipad and refueling truck for the helicopter next to the factory became part of the dark silhouette with the Raccoon Forest near the outskirts of the city. Emergency crews immediately went about securing emergency lights throughout the factory. Dim lights soon came on in the factory and power was re-routed to the radio communication room in the factory. A radio message came in from the helicopter pilot saying that he was less than ten minutes from the factory. A man scurried out to the helipad holding two dome light batons used to direct aircraft.  
Once the man was on the helipad, heard the unmistakable sounds of the rotors of the Sikorsky H-53E as it approached the helipad less than five miles out. The H-53 was a refitted and scrapped down model from the military for use as a cargo chopper.   
The H-53 pilot soon found the factory due to the very dim lights he could see at his altitude of eight hundred feet and distance of five miles out. After a few circles over the factory and no sign of the helipad, he radioed the factory.  
"Alpha, this Wybird, come in over", asked the helicopter pilot using call signs.  
"Wybird, Alpha, what is it?" answered the radio operator in factory.  
"Where the helipad? I can't see the damn thing!?" the pilot said.  
"Wybird, this is Alpha, we experienced a power outage, we have a man out on the pad with batons. He will be your guide to bring her in to the helipad, over", replied the radio operator at the factory.  
The helicopter pilot hated blind landings, especially in the pitch dark of the night and replied, "Roger Alpha, we're brining her in, nice and slowly."  
The pilot started to bring her down, decreasing his altitude slowly from one mile out from the two small lights of the man on the helipad now designated as the Landing Signal Officer. It would take the pilot's full expertise and his co-pilot's too to bring her down, especially with her cargo of various machine parts and her load of two hundred compressed pounds of CO2 and argon-carbon mixed gas cylinders for use in the welders in the factory, each highly subtle to hits and bang...  
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A figure mulled around in the darkness behind the factory, partially tumbling through bushes in the forest. When it heard the movement and loud noise from the direction of the factory when the power went out, it made its way toward the factory.  
As it neared the factory, it saw movement ahead of it, it was the LSO (Landing Signal Officer) making his way to the helipad. The figure decided to go after the LSO, seeing it the only movement from where it was.   
A few minutes later, it made it's was fifty feet from the LSO and the helipad, as the H-53 lumbered overheard, slowly descending to the helipad.  
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The pilot constantly checked his gauges and controls inside the cockpit of the H-53, specifically comparing the altimeter to the LSO's hand and baton directions, making appropriate decisions between the two.  
He noticed the helo swaying a little too much to his left, and pressed down on his rudder controls, aligning the aircraft with the LSO, who was only less than a hundred feet below him.  
Less than a minute and he would be on the ground, safely....  
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The figure moved anything but swiftly to the LSO, hidden by the darkness and the loud phoofing of the rotor blades on the H-53, it was only twenty feet form the helipad, scuffling its feet and with a low moan that couldn't be heard.  
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The H-53 was only thirty feet from touching down on the helipad and he could the LSO's face every so often due to the landing lights on the helicopter blinking, illuminating the pad. He was now twenty feet off the ground, when he thought he saw something from the corner of his eye in the darkness but didn't give it a second look because he had to concentrate on the instruments and the LSO, making ever so slightly adjustments to the helo.   
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The figure limped onto the edge of the helipad, slightly being pushed back by the downdraft from the H-53's propellers, but still continued on. When the H-53's lights blinked twice in succession, the figure lit up and could clearly be seen as a zombie, with its left side of its body seemingly mutilated, as if with acid. Its face looked like it was sagging or hanging, with no lips and teeth clearly shown with red on them.   
The zombie continued out onto the pad, easing its way to the LSO, who was still wavering the light batons to the pilot that was ten feet above him and ten feet away. The H-53 was about to touch down. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   
The H-53 finally touched down on the helipad, and began the procedures for the cargo unloading. The LSO came over to the pilot's cockpit door and opened it. The LSO was wearing a bright orange vest along with straps for the batons and exchanged greetings with the pilot.   
The pilot was the first one to see it. The zombie came stumbling at the LSO and slammed into him, causing him to push into the cockpit. The LSO fell onto the control stick in the cockpit, pushing it to the far right, causing the H-53 to pull up and bank to the right.   
The co-pilot had already been out of the helicopter and was at the rear of the cargo when the H-53 jumped to the right. The co-pilot jumped back from the helicopter, just missing the tail of it from swiping off his head.   
With the zombie on the LSO's back, the LSO was pulled out of the H-53 and onto the ground with the zombie while the helicopter was banking away. With no draft for the rotors and due to the sharp embankment to the right, the H-53 wasn't gaining any altitude and its rotors smashed into the helipad.   
Pieces of concrete from the helipad and the rotors went flying into the factory and across the helipad and the forest. The rotors instantly turned into crumpled pieces of metal, spewing hydraulic fluid on the tarmac. The pilot desperately tried to regain the helicopter, but to no avail. The tail of the H-53 hit the helipad first, snapping off the helicopter and went skidding off the helipad into the forest. The fuselage and the body of the H-53 hit the helipad next, the sound of metal crunching and bending under the stress.   
The pilot was knocked unconscious from a blow into the overhead controls while the cylinders of CO2 and argon-carbon gas banged around in the cargo area until the H-53 hit the ground and they exploded from the impact and the compression, instantly ripping apart the H-53 on the tarmac into pieces with them flying everywhere. One of the rotors broke off of the shaft from the explosion and went slicing through the air into the refueling truck just off the helipad, cutting through the tank filled with jet fuel, exploding into a ball of fire and heat.  
Everyone near the two explosions was knocked down to the ground from the force. Those especially near the two explosions were instantly killed, the co-pilot, the LSO, and the zombie were killed and badly burned along with the pilot.   
The two explosions rocked the factory and were felt all the way to Raccoon City, setting off car alarms and burglary alarms too. Out on the helipad, all that could be seen was a mound of wreckage engulf in flames and off to the side was the refueling truck the same too. Emergency workers immediately scrambled and the Raccoon City Fire Department was called to the scene to help. The explosions could be seen miles away and heard too, shaken those awake from their slumber in the night to the thunder like sound as it reverberated through the sky.  
  
PILOT ERROR  
  
News reporters were at the factory in a second, covering the accident. In the background while the cameras rolled, the wreckage could be seen, still in flames while the fire department put it out, dousing it with water and chemical foam.  
The reporters soon dispersed from the scene, the cause of crash of the H-53 now officially reported as being caused by pilot error. The real truth of the crash wouldn't be known till days from the report from the coroner revealed that a already dead body was near the helicopter, a zombie, that would add to the later chaotic well being of Raccoon City, of what was to come....  
  
"IT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!!"  
  
The quarry of fire trucks left the torched and scared helipad at the factory after finally putting out the two fires plus multiple smaller ones that were nearby. They were returning back to their station house, already in the city streets, the three fire engines were tailing each other back to the station house.   
The firemen in the second engine were chatting on the just previous fire at the helipad and were deciding on what was for dinner when they got back, haven't eaten yet since their lunch.  
"So, Steve", asked one of the firemen in the second truck, his face ragged and scared from other numerous fires he fought, a true sign of a senior fire fighter, "how'd ya fare in pad fire just before, huh?"  
Steve responded with a grumble, looking up just a little at him, his face covered in soot and covered horrendously and then coughed harshly from the smoke. Steve was a rookie, in the fire department for just two months, the fire at the helipad being his first "big" one he's experienced. The Senior man erupted into a loud, deep laugh while others joined in too in the back cab of the truck.  
"Don't worry Steve" he said looking at him, his eyes a little teary from laughing so hard, "you'll get the hang of it, all in-" he said, sporadically laughing, "all in due time!" and erupted into another laugh with others.  
Steve just grumbled and looked out the cab window into the streets, noticing the foliage and the damp streets and realized that they were in a low-income part of the city. 'Hmm, George probably picked a short cut, can't wait to eat probably!' he thought to himself when all of a sudden the truck braked hard and swerved to the right, throwing Steve against the window and everybody else tumbling in the back.  
The lead truck had just swerved to the right, trying its best to avoid hitting a person that pratically jumped from in between the parked cars on the street but had hit it, sending the person flying from the impact. The fire truck had braked too hard and turned too sharply, banging up against the row of cars, smashing doors and windows and sent one car flipping over onto the sidewalk. The fire truck was now turned at almost 180 degrees when it flipped onto to its left side, and skidded on the street, sending sparks into the air and bounced repeatedly off the rows of cars parked on the sides of the street. It finally came to a stop, some two hundred feet from where hit first hit its brakes, firefighters climbing out of the flipped engine, bruised and bleeding, some critically hurt, still laying at odd angles in the truck. The person hit was twenty feet from where it was hit, having been flung some two hundred so feet.  
The two following trucks didn't make the same fatal mistakes as the lead engine did, but did swerve dangerously, banging a few cars up, but were otherwise safe. The firefighters got off the trucks and ran over to help their fellow men. They dragged out those injured and hurt and radioed for ambulances.  
"Come in dispatch, come in dispatch", said one of the uninjured fighters getting to the radio in one of the trucks, "we have multiple injured and need multiple buses immediately" he said then ran off the intersection where the accident happened.   
One of the firefighters got to the lead's truck's driver seat and pulled the driver, George, out and onto the ground.  
"What the Hell happened!?!" said the guy who pulled him out.  
"It came out of nowhere!" George said, he head bleeding from a cut and holding his right arm, seemingly broken or fractured, "I came out of F-king nowhere! "  
"Where is the person?" he asked.  
"On the other side of the truck! Son of a bi-h!" He repeatedly said to himself as he was attended to.  
The firefighters saw the person that was hit and went over to him after climbing over a badly mangled car demolished by the truck to get to the other side. When he got over, the person was face down in the asphalt of the street. He intestines looked like they were hanging out in the street. 'Damn! He must've been hit bad!' he thought as he moved over the body onto his back and saw his whole face a mangled mess, his jaw hanging loosely on his face, his right eye socket broken into his skull. His right side of his skull was completely missing, his brain visible and partially mashed within. The firefighter jumped back at the site and stumbled on his own legs, and fell onto his back. He scrambled back up and ran to the others.  
He finally found some one and told them about the guy that was hit and told them what he say, telling them that his injuries were no way caused by the truck, that he looked like he was literally falling apart! Two men went over with him back to the person in the street, having to climb over the same car again. Once the view of the street on the other side of the truck could be seen, the body was gone! The two that went looked at him awkwardly and he ran over to where the body was, the two in following step.  
When he reached the spot, there was a pool of blood and internal organs were on street where the body had been! He started looking around for the body, his head darting in all directions. The other two started looking in all directions too, now seeing the blood stain and remains of organs. One of them saw a blood trail lead between two parked cars not far away and followed it over. When he reached the two cars, a Toyota Camry and a Ford Taurus, all he could see was darkness for the lack of a street light near the cars.   
He took out his Halogen light and shined it into the dark crevice and immediately regretted doing so. The person that had been hit was eating a cat that was dead in the gutter between the cars, its face indulged in the cats mid-torso, eating away the flesh.   
The firefighter walked away from the cars and puked in the street at the end of the Toyota Camry. The other two saw him and came over, their black coats with the yellow florescent stripes swaying in the wind as they ran over. They asked what was wrong and he told them and one of them went over while the other helped the guy that had puked.   
He shined the Halogen light that was dropped by the other guy into the same place, the intensity of the light attracted the attention of the man in the gutter. It looked up at the firefighter, its eyes wide in shock and terror with its face covered in blood, a piece of flesh hung from its side of its mouth. It suddenly gasped at him, his eyes turning to pain and sorrow, the firefighter letting his guard drop for a split second as he saw this.   
The guy lunged at him, but had in the such cramped space between the cars, hit the fender of the Camry and just missed the firefighter but was close enough to grab his leg. The firefighter then realized in his head as this being a zombie and went and kicked the guy in his face. The heavy density of the firefighters' boots created a crater in the zombie's right side of his face, thus breaking off most of the zombie's face, exposing muscle and spilling more blood onto the firefighter's pants. The firefighter shoved himself away from the zombie and got up and ran.  
The zombie regained its composure quickly, parts of his face falling off to the ground as it got up. It made its toward the other two firefighters as the other got there too. He got their attention and turned to point in the direction of the zombie, but as he turned, the zombie was almost atop of him. It grabbed his arm and bit into the coat, but it was too thick to penetrate the fabric. The firefighter ripped his arm from the zombie and brought his left arm up to the zombie's face, hitting him in the right side. With the zombie's face already falling apart, the impact of the punch went right through the skull and smashed into the zombie's brain.   
The firefighter made a disgusted sound as he pulled his hand out of the zombie's head, brain smeared on it and pieces of it stuck in the glove. The zombie fell to the ground, when its head hit, splattering brain across the street in a blast like pattern. The zombie didn't move except for the seldom twitch of his body. The three firefighters backed away from the zombie, just as two ambulances turned sharply down at the other end of the street ahead of them. The one that had vomited earlier leaned up against the tossed fire truck and slumped down to the ground, the other two just stood there, too tired to move.  
The entire incident occurred in just five minutes, but to them, it was eternity....  
  
ALERTNESS  
  
The news media was on the accident scene again in no time. Not only was the fire truck accident the big news, but that a similar incident that had happened two days ago happened again.  
The reporters interviewed the firefighters involved, they hadn't been told not to speak and were still stunned, they told the media what had happened, at least what they saw.  
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The Chief had been expecting this soon enough, but was puzzled on the length of time it took for another incident to happen. He knew the press and the people would want answers and to know what the police were doing. The old 'Ebola Virus' wouldn't work, that he knew. So, he thought up a new one, one that would really put the city in turmoil, chaos, and most of all, confusion....  
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The Chief approached the podium once more the next morning after last night's incident. He had redid his speech over and over, checking every point and flaw, making sure the plan would work and not backfire. Now, to commence it...  
"The past few days incidents in our city have caused and raised concern within police officials, public officials and citizens too. After carefully reviewing the incidents that have concurred in our city, I have decided.  
"In order to calm fears, and," now came the part for the Chief where he would gamble that what his was about to say would not reach beyond the perimeters of the city, "with the Center for Disease Control, or CDC, being overly busy and under manned, I have asked numerous other companies for help, specifically those that specialize in bacterial and viral cases. Unfortunately, none of them volunteered any help or resources," what he just said was a complete utter lie, he never contacted any companies, except for one, "but, gratefully, one company did. This leading company in pharmaceutical development is highly competent in maybe such a case we may have in the city. That company is Umbrella Incorporated." The Chief knew that Umbrella themselves was the one that had started all of this. But, with an earlier call from them, they had reassured them that they could contain the virus and restore the city, he had reluctantly went along, and came up with this unfolding story.  
"Umbrella Inc. has gratefully devoted to us some of their resources, a team of a few valuable persons to us of Raccoon City. These persons are on loan indefinitely to help us figure out if we have a, and I use the term loosely, epidemic. Please," he said, lifting his arm up with his palm out to the press sitting in their metal fold-up chairs, "do not become too alarmed. I believe myself that we do not have such a epidemic, but, I am taking all necessary precautions in case there is one. Thank you ladies and gentlemen", he said and left the podium.  
'Umbrella have better not fu#k up this time!' he thought to himself as he left the Press Room back to his office. 'If they mess up, they won't leave this city alive those coming....'  
  
ARRIVAL  
  
It was mid-morning in Raccoon City, only a few hours after the Chief's speech informing everyone of Umbrella's arrival this day. The Chief, Mayor Michael Warren of Raccoon City, the head Medical Supervisor from Raccoon City Hospital, and a few officers were on the helipad on the roof of the hospital waiting for the arrival of the helicopter.  
The Bell 430 came into sight from over the horizon, about ten miles out from the city, moving at 140mph. Its sleek black paint was shining brightly in the morning sun. The three persons in the back of the helicopter knew what they were to do. One of them was the Chief Security Officer of Biohazard Operations (BioOps) of Umbrella, his name was Sergeant William Cartell. He was veteran of Umbrella, having been with them for more than twenty-five years, now at the age of forty-seven.  
The second person was actually a scientist, Ms. Danielle Pearson. She was part of Umbrella's CDT, Creation and Development Team of Biohazards, specifically those internationally forbidden. She was only twenty-four when Umbrella recruited her after she had graduated from college. She had thought with her knowledge of enzymes, proteins, DNA, and the works of Biology, she would work in actual pharmaceuticals with Umbrella, but after a while, she was transferred to the CDT division, soon becoming the supervisor of the CDT.  
The other person was Matthew Chong, the "political officer" or the Public Relations officer for Umbrella, dealing with the public details. He was currently Umbrella's top advisor on public affairs and specially chosen for this assignment. He was to determine any deemed details or decisions on behalf of Umbrella that may hurt Umbrella in the long-term future because of Raccoon City.  
The Bell 430 was slowing toward the hospital, the Umbrella Inc. logo clearly seen on the both sides of the helicopter. The helicopter was soon partially hovering over the tarmac on the hospital, slowly descending to the helipad. It finally touched down, the landing gear giving in a little to the weight of the Bell 430 and with the dynamics of the hydraulic system.  
The side door on the helicopter slid open and the three Umbrella officials stepped out, their suits blowing from the downdraft of the helicopter. The Chief, Mayor Warren, and the Supervisor walked over to the three while the officers stood by the elevator, holding their caps down. They exchanged greetings while their suits too blew in the wind and in their faces.  
The pilot shut down the engines and soon prepared the helicopter for standby. As the group walked toward elevator in the corner of the roof and the yellow tipped rotors of the helicopter came to a halt, the city officials began their recap of the events in the city. The Mayor and the Chief knew Umbrella has started this, but the head doctor did not and neither did the officers standing just behind them, so, they had to limit their recaps and what they really knew.   
When the elevator finally arrived and they boarded it, there was weight limit of only 1,200 pounds, not everyone would be able to go on the elevator at once. The Chief saw the chance and took it.  
"Doctor and you two", the Chief said, turning to the doctor and the two officers, "there isn't room or weight for all of us. So doctor, I want you and the two officers to take the elevator down after us, okay?" he said while stepping into the elevator with the mayor and the other three. The two officers nodded and the doctor just said yes.  
As the elevator doors closed and the elevator started its journey down, the Chief finally started on what was really happening and what was to happen.   
"Just the what the Hell are you people doing to my city!?!?" the Chief said to the three.  
"Chief Irons, now just calm down", the Mayor said to the Chief and turned to the three. "What do you plan to do to my city to save it from this impending 'Hell', huh?" The Mayor stood at 5' 3", though at a small height for his age of thirty-eight, he was an imposing figure when he became serious and he was now.  
Sergeant Cartell looked at the other two and then at the Mayor and the Chief, he knew they were on the payroll of Umbrella and he could talk freely. The two had been working for Umbrella for some time helping Umbrella throughout the city with various projects. One was the huge laboratory beneath the city, harvesting the newly born G-Virus. Mr. Chong took over to fill them in and began.  
"First", Mr. Chong began to the two city officials, "I and Umbrella would like to apologize for the recent 'occurrences'. It would seem like one of our 'associates', specifically Mr. William Birkin, released the newly developed G-Virus in your city. This seems much like the Arklay Mts. Incident with the mansion and the S.T.A.R.S. team and the rogue operative Captain Albert Wesker.  
"But, this new Virus is far more powerful and potent then the T-Virus that was released in the mansion. Ms. Pearson will fill you in with the details and the effects and any possible preventions against the virus, Ms. Pearson..." Mr. Chong said to Ms. Pearson, nodding to her for her to begin.  
Ms. Pearson began on the basic structure of the G-Virus to the two officials, she knew it would confuse them and throw them a little off-balance, just what Umbrella wanted down, to slow down the reaction of them and to let her finish her "lecture".  
"All in all", Ms. Pearson said, finishing, "this biological virus is far more superior than the T-Virus. It can literally change the DNA structure of a human being depending on the how long the person was exposed to the virus and the amount of the virus he or she was exposed to.  
"Here are a few pictures of the various results of the virus on humans, changing frequently due to exposure and amount." Ms. Pearson took a few photos from her briefcase while Sgt. Cartell looked on. As she handed the pictures to the two, the Mayor gasped at them while the Chief's expression just changed to a grim one.  
The first photo showed a human body severely decomposing but in the photo, the body was walking mindlessly in a cell. Its' organs could be seen hanging out of it's torso, its jaw was twisted at an odd angle downward to the right and it's left leg, its shin bone was protruding from the skin.  
"That photo", Ms. Pearson said, referring to the one first seen by the Mayor, "with the person had an exposure time of only three hours to the virus, but that's just a small effect as the exposure time increases."  
The next photo displayed a creature lying on the floor. Its head could be seen, right through, the brain clearly shown with pieces of bone covering it. Its entire muscles of the body were seen, its skin missing from its whole body. The picture showed the creature lashing its tongue at something off the camera view.  
"Wha-what is this thing!?!?" the Mayor asked Ms. Pearson, his face twisted in disgust.  
"That', she said pointing to the photo, "is what happens to a human when exposed to the virus for eight hours. It has remarkable speed and agility and its claws on the end of its limbs have severed entire bodies in have, unfortunately experienced by some of our staff." She said, looking momentarily down at the elevator floor.  
"My God!" The Chief said after he was handed the picture of the creature. "This was a human! What the Hell do you people do!?!"  
Sgt. Cartell stepped in before Ms. Pearson could answer.  
"Mr. Irons, that is not the issue at hand, the issue is the fate of your city, not what we do. Remember, we pay you, and you keep your mouth shut, no questions asked, okay?" Sgt. Cartell said to the Chief and the Mayor too, jabbing his finger at them two.  
The Chief didn't like to be talked down to like that, but he was right, the future of the city was at stake, not what Umbrella ethics were. He handed the photo back to Ms. Pearson. Ms. Pearson started to take more photos when the Chief spoke.  
"No more." He said, "I think we get the point. And we both have already seen some pictures of the effects of the virus from your lab, we don't need to see anymore." He finished just as the elevator stopped on the basement floor of the hospital, where the morgue was placed.  
"We should wait for the Doctor here to show us to the morgue with the victims. While we wait, lets go over any plans or ideas for the city." And with that the five discussed various scenarios until the elevator came back down with the Doctor and the officers and they went to the morgue to view the unlucky victims.  
  
EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE  
  
"Roger, this is Five-Five-Charlie, we're on it." Said Frank Victor, replacing the CB piece back into its cradle of the radio fastened onto the dashboard of the ambulance. A call from dispatch said that a man, severely burned it seemed, was lying in a gutter on Center St. and Campbell Lane. Witnesses said the person was twitching and seemed still alive.  
The ambulance, Five-Five-Charlie, arrived to the person two minutes later. The ambulance came to a halt a few feet from the haggler. When Frank Victor and his partner, Lugi Chanel, ran over to the man with their medical bags.  
"Oooh!" said Lugi at the sight of the man, lying in the gutter, drainage water flowing beneath his body, giving him a stench. "Man, looks like he was burned or something." He said, kneeling besides him and his partner. The man's skin was missing and torn or purple.   
"Just hurry up with the IV for him, we gotta get him to the hospital, he's in pretty bad shape." Frank said as he administered the IV into the man's arm.  
They then got the stretcher and laid him on it and brought him into the ambulance. They finished loading him up and Frank got into the driver's seat and started toward the hospital while Lugi tended to the man in the back. He patched up any wounds or missing skin with gauge and any other mishaps of the guy while the ambulance sped to the hospital.  
Lugi turned to the rack behind him to get more gauge when the man jumped up from the stretcher in the back of the ambulance, because of Lugi's mistake of not strapping the haggler down by guidelines. The guy grabbed Lugi from behind and pulled him down to the stretcher, biting into his neck, sending blood spilling onto the white covers on the stretcher. Lugi screamed in horror as the man's face came down again and bit into his shoulder, his head twisting to rip the flesh from the bones.  
Frank turned at the scream and saw the haggler biting into Lugi, blood spurting all over the inside of the back cab of the ambulance. Frank didn't know what to do and just grabbed an oxygen tank just behind the seat and flung it at the guy, hitting him in the head with a thud and bone cracking. The man let go of Lugi, his body sliding to floor, twisting his legs in a contorted manner. The man, now clearly a zombie, just slumped forward into the rack with a bang.   
Frank turned back toward the street and went to radio for a squad car at the hospital when the guy was suddenly halfway in the front of the ambulance and reached for Frank. Frank went to backup, but it was too late, the zombie caught him in a partial bear hug and bit into his right arm bicep. Frank pushed the zombie back, using his injured right arm, sending the zombie into the passenger door and his head smashing the window, shattering it into pieces, its head hanging out the window with a piece of glass jutted into his throat, blood gushing out onto the side of the white paint job ambulance.  
Frank had just regained control of the ambulance when he saw the zombie lung at him, his mouth agape and bit into Frank's face, ripping his cheek off. It then brought his head up and bit into Frank's ear, ripping it off whole. Frank swerved the ambulance across the busy street. People were stopping and watching as the ambulance went skidding along a row of park cars, sparks flying and metal screeching in the afternoon sun.   
The bite wounds spurted blood along the inside of the windshield, blocking any view of the street, not that it mattered anyway, Frank was in shock, and was only concentrating on stopping the zombie. The zombie forced his way farther into the driver's seat and jammed its foot onto the accelerator, the ambulance's engine roaring to the high intake of gasoline.   
Frank brought up his left arm and swung at the zombie, hitting him square in the back of the ear. The zombie stopped momentarily, giving Frank time to react. He up his right elbow and up into the zombie's jaw, sending its head up and into the roof of the ambulance. The ambulance suddenly went through an intersection and plowed into a car crossing. The ambulance smashed into the front of the car, throwing the car back and in a one-eight-degree turn back the way it came from. The ambulance lifted off the street for a second and came slamming back down.   
The zombie was sent flying into the windshield, smashing it, but not breaking it. Frank's head was slammed into the steering wheel, knocking him unconscious. The ambulance then started to turn to the right sharply and careened right into a light pole, knocking the light pole off its structure. The light pole came crashing down on the ambulance, creating an indent in the top of it, but the ambulance kept going and smashed into a building with the light pole still on it.  
Frank was still knocked out and the zombie started to get up, but fell back down into the seat. The gas tank on the ambulance was ruptured and gasoline was leaking out quickly and dangerously along the sidewalk toward the severed wires of the light pole. People nearby started to gather at the scene when a squad car pulled up, the officers jumping out.  
One of them noticed the gas and the wires and shouted a warning, but was too late, the gasoline reached the wires and sparks lead to explosions. The rear of the ambulance blew up, lifting it off the ground and sent a ball of flames outward to the street, blowing cars parked into the air and flipping them and came crashing down, one of them on top of the squad car.   
The ambulance was blown into the building front and came crashing down on the sidewalk in a smoldering heap of metal. The officers were blown down from the explosion, one of them lost his hearing permanently from the explosion and the other suffered melted glass in his skin from the nearby car windows and the heat on his skin.  
By the time the action stopped, the ambulance and all its occupants were dead and burned beyond recognition. The light pole that had been atop of the ambulance was blown across the street into the front shop of a clothing store, burning clothes from the heat of the pole in the fire.   
People were finally getting up and bleeding and crying in pain and shock, but it would later lead to what was happening to their city, the once quiet Mid-Western town was now becoming a seemingly deathtrap, a horror from what they once knew and loved, but who had any answers to why, when, what, and how it happened and how it was going to end.......  
  
  
  
DISCOVERY  
  
Mayor Warren, Chief Irons, Sgt. Cartell, Dr. Pearson, Mr. Chong and the Doctor and two officers were in the morgue of the city hospital when the news came of the ambulance accident over the CB radio of the two officers. The group were going over the deceased bodies and were trading notes on the dead bodies over any similarities.  
When Chief Irons heard the report of the accident, he lost it and lunged at Dr. Pearson. Mayor Warren was standing there with Mr. Chong in shock of what was happening. The two officers immediately laid their hands on the butt of their Glock 19, ready in case of anything while the Chief was screaming.  
"YOU STUPID SONS OF BITCHES" screamed the Chief at Dr. Pearson, "YOU DID IT AGAIN TO MY CITY!!! YOU'RE NOT HERE TO SAVE IT, YOU'RE ONLY HERE TO MAKE SURE YOU FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED!!!" And then, the Chief caught himself, both realizing what he was doing and remembering that the two officers and the Doctor heard what he said.  
The two officers looked at each other with puzzlement and the Doctor too, realizing that this was Umbrella's doing and the Chief too.  
"What!?!" said the Doctor, "What's going on here? Chief Irons? Mr. Mayor, did you he that!?!?" he said to Mayor Warren as he saw that he was looking down at his shoes, wearing a face of shame.   
The Doctor then looked at the two officers who too found out that both the Mayor and the Chief were in with Umbrella. The officers didn't know what to do, their Chief was a part of this horror and didn't know if they should draw their weapons and if so, on who?  
The Chief released Dr. Pearson from his grip and backed away and was about to speak when he heard two gunshots. He saw the two officers bodies thrust back as two holes appeared in their chests and then their heads get whipped back, a small hole in each head. One of their caps flying off their head to the floor, their bodies slumping to the ground, dead before they hit the floor. He saw the Doctor from the corner of his eye, his chest gaining two red spots on his dress shirt and one in his forehead, his body falling into a gurney, tipping it over with him onto the floor.  
The Chief looked to the source of the gunshots and saw where they came from, Srg. Cartell, holding a Walther PPK. The barrel was still smoking, only holding one of the six bullets now in it's barrel. The Chief realized that Srg. Cartell was hiding the gun in the back of his shirt, most likely in a holster. The Chief looked to Dr. Pearson and Mr. Chong and saw that both didn't know he was carrying a gun either.  
"Wh….why?" said Mayor Warren, looking down at the two cops and the Doctors' bodies.  
"They had to be eliminated." responded Srg. Cartell while he replaced his nearly spent clip with a fresh one from a vest specially sewn in the lining of his jacket. "Once they found out, do you think they would've cooperated with us? You saw the two cops, they were ready to shoot anyone of us they were so confused and loyal to the city. So, those factors considered, one option was left, and, well…" he trailed off, letting everyone figure it out themselves.   
Dr. Pearson went to check the bodies of the three to make sure they were dead, all of which were. Mr. Chong was in shock still, and finally regained his composure and started to speak.  
"We need to rid of the bodies, and fast before someone comes down to see what the gunshots were." Said Mr. Chong to everyone.  
"Exactly what I was thinking Mr. Chong." Srg. Cartell said while he started to lift one of the cop's body up onto a gurney. "Don't just stand there! Get going with these bodies, we need to get them to the incinerator in the next room down." He said putting the cop on the gurney, his arm hanging off limply.  
"But, I don't think the hospital has an incinerator?" Mayor Warren said to Srg. Cartell, not sure what to do.  
"Oh, yes it" he grunted in the middle of his sentence while he lifted the other officer's body on top of the officer's, "it does. I reviewed Umbrella's plans for this hospital, this was a major investment."  
Chief Irons brought the Doctor's body onto another gurney and was setting the body down when the body that had fell off the gurney before suddenly grabbed the Chief's leg.  
Chief Irons turned around while bringing his other leg in a sweep and kicked the body squarely in the face, the grip of the body releasing his leg. The Chief jumped back, drawing his gun and was about to shoot when Srg. Cartell's hand came over his gun.  
"No", said Srg. Cartell, "anymore shots and someone will come looking. We'll dump the body with the rest. Restrain the body in a bag and onto a gurney and fast."  
Mayor Warren was wearing a face of confusion and then started to speak to Srg. Cartell.  
"Ho-How?" said Mayor Warren, "How are we going to move this....this zombie to the incinerator, it may attack us or worse!?!"  
Srg. Cartell finished securing the two officers' bodies to the gurney atop of each other using the restraint belts and then turned to Mayor Warren.  
"Mr. Warren", Srg. Cartell said, "all we have to do is have someone restrain the zombie while someone ties his arms behind him. Then two of us put the zombie in a body bag and onto a gurney. It's rather easy, I've done it so many times in training." He finished while rolling the officers' gurney to the doors of the Morgue.  
"What do I do then?" asked Mayor Warren.  
"Nothing", replied Srg. Cartell, "I'm sure the Chief and I can do it, am I right?" Srg. Cartell said to Chief Irons while raising his left eyebrow.  
The Chief finished tying down the Doctor and turned to Srg. Cartell.  
"Yeah, we can do it." And the Chief and Srg. Cartell went to work.  
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The group of five moved down the hallway of the basement of the hospital to the incinerator room, once used to burn coal but now used to rid of hazardous waste.  
The wheels of the three gurneys squeaked as they rolled down the hallway. The Chief was pushing the Doctor on the gurney while Srg. Cartell was pushing the two officers. Mayor Warren was pushing the zombie in the body bag on the gurney down the hallway while it kicked and struggled on the gurney.   
Mayor Warren struggled to keep the gurney straight while it kick and thrashed in the bag, a face of grim and fear on his face. The zombie kept moaning and groaning in the bag and had even kicked the Mayor in the gut during its raving.   
The set of gurneys finally reached the incinerator room and entered. The bodies were off loaded from their respective gurneys and laid in a line in front of the incinerator. The zombie was taken off and was the first to be thrown into the incinerator. But, while the Chief and Srg. Cartell lifted it and were about to throw in to the incinerator, as if in a last ditch effort to free itself, it kicked Srg. Cartell in the groin, causing him to drop the bag.  
Srg. Cartell fell to his knees, cursing while he regained his composure. The zombie wiggled on the floor, gaining no distance from the group. Chief Irons grabbed the legs of the zombie and dragged the bag to the incinerator. He lifted the legs of it into the incinerator and threw the rest of the body into flames. The zombie kicked and twisted inside the bag while burning in the flames.   
The Chief watched as the body bag melted into a black ooze in the flames, then the body and the skin while the zombie screamed a silent scream in the flames. The rest of the group threw in the rest of the bodies of the cops and the Doctor. Srg. Cartell lit a cigarette and leaned against the corner wall of the room while Mayor Warren and Mr. Chong just sat breathless with Dr. Pearson.  
All the while, Chief Irons was staring into the flames, a smile on his face as he watched the bones of the bodies start to burn into ashes…   
  
"THE TOP STORY OF TODAY IS...."  
  
The crew moved about on the set, hurrying to be ready when it started. The cameras were trained onto the two people sitting at the desk and focused. Those behind the cameras bustled to their places to be ready. One of them raised his hand, palm out to the two at the desk, and counted down from five to one, and at one, the cameras started to roll on the two dressed in formal wear and spoke.  
"The top story today is the crash and explosion of a Raccoon City Emergency Response Ambulance at Broadway and Eight Street." said the female anchor to the camera. "The accident is another addition to the recent bizarre events that have been happening to the city in the past week. The Chief of Police and Mayor Warren have made speeches to the city, all in the effort to calm the people down."  
"Yes", said the male anchor next to the female, "the city and police have made efforts to stop and prevent, whatever it is that is falling upon the city. In one effort, the city has called in the assistance the Umbrella Corporation. Footage taken earlier this morning," he said as the camera showed the footage of the black Umbrella helicopter landing at the City Hospital, "shows Umbrella officials arriving in the city to help the police in the recent events."  
"Some have said", the female reporter took over, "that what has been happening is actually an onset of an military accident of misuse of weapons. But, others have said this may be linked to Umbrella itself, since its arrival in the city, but, nothing has surfaced to point to Umbrella, and the people are still uncertain. In other news....."  
  
BREAK TIME, FOR NOW...  
  
Chief Irons decided to pull over on the side of the road. He parked his Chevy Impala in the dirt on the side of the road, as he just left the hospital. When he left, he just kept driving, sort of in a daze and rounded up outside of the city. He sat in the car for some time, staring at the steering wheel. After a semi truck came roaring by, he looked up and opened the driver's door and got out. He walked to the front of the car and turned toward the sun, watching as it rose to its zenith. Spending all morning in the basement of the hospital, ridding the bodies and discussing cover stories for them.   
It was now afternoon, and the Chief just stared at Raccoon Forest, trying to find where the mansion had been, knowing Srg. Cartell was making his way there right now. 'Oh hell, I'm tired of Umbrella and their God damn mess ups!' he said, then punched the hood of the car. He brought his fist up, his knuckles bleeding, the blood dripping from his hand to the dirt below. "Crap, I gotta control myself a little more, but who could blame me...'   
He walked back to the car and reached into the open window and grabbed his Styrofoam cup of coffee and brought it to his lips and drank. He looked up at the sky with a sullen look, reflecting on the past years. 'Oh, I guess I'll never be Mayor now' he thought, 'That Warren, such a weakling! I could've run the city better and headed off this disaster, now...it's all too late. All my gambling, and Umbrella with their money, what a bad mix, but one that pulled me in. Forgive me Raccoon City....' Just then, a group of crows flew out of the forest in front of him, causing him to drop his cup of coffee on his shoes.  
"Who the Hell am I kidding!?!?" he said out loud to no one, "I'll have a little fun with the city, it is my city after all, isn't it....? Crap, all this philosophical thinking is giving me a headache, the police will play their final act in the next few days, and after that, well, there won't be anything after that...."   
He got into the car and started it and did a U-turn on the road and headed back to the city, his car leaving behind a cloud of dust and dirt. He sped down the road, the sun glaring off the car as it neared the city.  
  
FUN AND GAMES  
  
The family had finally organized a day off for themselves hiking in the Arklay Mountains. The father was a tailor shop owner while the mother worked at the "Raccoon Superstore" as a cashier. Their three children had the day off of school and they started off to the Arklay Mountains at dawn.  
The Mercury Sable rolled down the asphalt roadway entrance into the Arklay Mts., the family inside. The Sable came to a stop about half way up "Arklay Path", about one mile from Marble River. The family unpacked the car and all the equipment for the tents.   
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" cried the youngest of three, Susan.  
"What?" moaned the father while he struggled with the tent poles.  
"Kurt and me wanna go into the forest." Susan said in her six year old voice, all giddy about the idea while her brother Kurt stood there staring at the sky above.  
"Go ask your mother", the father replied while he took a stone and whacked the tent pole in the ground, but missed and hit his index finger, cursing while the two kids ran off to their mother.  
"Mommy, can Kurt and me go into the forest?" Susan said with a puppy look on her face to her mother.  
"If your father said yeah, you can, but Dan is in charge, you hear?"  
"Yeah, I know." Said Dan from the car, the oldest of the three at twelve of his brother Kurt at eight. "Come on, let's go 'play'…" he said to the two, not looking forward to the idea of watching them.  
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The three kids had passed Marble River and entered into the Cider District of the Arkaly Mts. after half an hour of playing in the woods. Susan suddenly called out to the two boys to come over. When the two got there, they looked to where Susan was pointing.  
"Look at this", Susan said to the two, "it looks like a stastue." She said, trying her best to pronounce 'statue'.   
"Yeah, it looks like a woman." Said Kurt in response, while he touched the top of the statue.  
The statue was a light blue, covered with moss of a woman holding a vase-like basin on her right shoulder. The statue was half was dugged in the ground and looked like it was in a fire.  
"Let's pull it out and bring it back to Mom and Dad." Said Susan to Dan.  
"Alright, let's try it, Kurt you get behind the statue and push, Susan and me will pull it." He said and moved to the statue while the two got in place. They started to pull and push when Dan's hands slipped on the moss and he went tumbling back, his body crashing onto display case of skulls and bones.  
Susan ran over to help and jumped back from Dan from the bones. Dan got up and saw the case and jumped back too, grabbing Kurt and Susan in his arms.  
"What…what is that?" asked Susan, pointing at the display case with a shaking finger.  
"I don't know, but we should get back to Mom and Dad." Dan said and they went off.   
They started running when there was a loud crash and Dan and Susan looked back toward Kurt and he was gone. The two started calling out his name when he replied. They ran over to a hole in the ground in a partial clearing, it looked like an air duct that collapsed into a hallway and Kurt was in the bottom, a yellow light flickering on and off. Dan tried to tell Kurt to try to reach his hand but couldn't.  
Dan then decided to go down to lift Kurt up to Susan and pull himself up after, so he then jumped down to Kurt. When he got down into the hallway, he looked around and saw that there was a corner at the end. He looked down at Kurt and saw that his leg was bleeding. Dan was then getting curious, 'This was some kind of underground place in a forest!' he thought as he looked around. He decided to come back later after he got Kurt out when he thought he heard something at the other end of the hallway….  
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In the morgue room of the underground laboratory, a Chimera was eating the remains of the last body in the room from the outbreak two months ago. It had been trapped in the laboratory since the explosion, though not the only one. It was chewing into the thigh of the body when it heard a loud noise. It looked up from the body and listened, then heard voices after.   
The Chimera then jumped out the doors into the hallway of the Power Room and the elevator, the path to the Power Room was barred by debris and the elevator shaft had collapsed. It then went into the main hallway where Kurt and Dan were, the doors slammed behind it. It clamored onto the wall then to the ceiling, avoiding a hanging electrical cable still live and made its way to the light falling into the hallway from above, the first it ever saw before, and toward the two boys….  
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Dan heard the noise and looked toward the source. Kurt was sobbing from the fall and Susan was looking down at the two. Dan stood up and squinted his eyes into the darkness, illuminating every few seconds in yellow. He started to walk down the hallway and told Susan to stay there and watch Kurt.  
Dan was nearing the corner of the hallway and stopped. He peeked around and saw nothing, then rounded it. He stopped in his tracks, the ceiling had collapsed, blocking the hallway. He tried to move the rubble, in a lack of effort, then stopped. He wiped his hands on his pants and turned to go back when the Chimera was hanging in front of him.   
He was looking straight into the face of it, it's mouth salivating a white foam with its' eyes a beading purple with a red pupils. Dan screamed and jumped to his left when the Chimera's right arm came up with its curved claw and at Dan's neck. His head came off with a clean cut at the neck, the head rolling to the rubble while his neck spurted out a gush of blood from the jugular.  
Dan's body fell limp to the ground, his blood pooling around the body while the Chimera bent down to feast when he heard a scream. It got up and started toward the end of the hallway, where it saw Kurt clabbering toward the opening reaching to a hand, then started toward him…  
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Kurt and Susan heard Dan's scream and Kurt immediately started to cry toward Susan, while she just stared at Kurt. She then reached down to Kurt while his hand was up toward her, she almost reached his hand when he collapsed from his injured leg.   
Kurt lifted his hand again and Susan reached when Kurt was whipped down and toward the darkness, his head smacking down to the floor from the pull, cracking at once, killing him instantly. His head left a trail of blood to where he was pulled while Susan watched as a spurt of blood shot from the darkness into the light.   
Susan got up from the opening and started to run away when she heard an inhuman shriek behind and a running behind at a fast speed. Susan pumped her little legs as fast as she could away from the horror she just saw and heard, the Chimera right on her tail and gaining. Susan finally entered a group of trees from the clearing and made a sharp turn around one.   
The Chimera jumped onto the bark of one of the trees and jumped onto the branch of another, closing the distance between it and Susan. The Chimera reached the top of one of the trees that was ahead of Susan and timed the fall to her, the Chimera fell onto Susan, crushing her body under its fall and weight, killing her.   
The Chimera had its fun exercise with the little girl and returned back to the opening to the two boys and left the girl for later "use".  
  
REPORT AND SEARCH  
  
The squad car rolled along the dirt and stones of the Arklay Path at two o'clock in the afternoon. Just an hour ago, two parents came running and screaming into the police department saying that their children were missing in the Arklay Mts. this morning. They said they heard a scream and looked for their kids, but couldn't find them and came here to report them missing and for help from the police.  
Squad car 1-8-4 was sent into the mountains to search while the police department sent for the helicopter to aid in the search but decided to send a car out to ease the parents concerns. 1-8-4 finally reached the campsite where the parents had said they were and saw the tent only half way up. The cop car pulled to the side, the antennas whipping from the momentum.  
Officers John Clark and Jenny Bartle both stepped out of the car and fitted their caps onto their heads and slid their night sticks into their loops on their belts. Officer Clark went to the truck of the car and withdrew an Armscor M-30SAS Special Purpose shotgun and loaded it with seven 12-ga. shells when Officer Bartle spoke.  
"Hey Clark", she asked, "what's with the shotgun?"  
"You think I'm gonna go into these mountains without some extra protection with all these reports and incidents recently? Don't forget that two officers are still missing that were sent into Arklay" he answered while pumped the Armscor, talking about the two cops that were shot by Srg. Cartell, though that was told to all for being missing.  
"Yeah, you're right…" she said while she remembered the reports of monsters and other thing just yesterday and months ago. "Know what? Hand me the Beretta in there." She said on second thought.  
"Here ya go." He said while he tossed the Beretta Model 1201FP shotgun to her with the box of shells he just used.  
Officer Bartle caught the Beretta and loaded it with the shells and pumped it after she gave the box back. The two checked their Glock 21's and reinserted the clips back into the grips and put them back into the holsters. Officer Clark slammed the trunk closed and they laid their shotguns across their chest on their straps and both started off into the woods to find the three lost kids.  
  
Two Hours Later…  
  
Officers Clark and Bartle were walking in the woods still looking for the two kids having past Marble River half an hour ago. They tried to report back to Dispatch but couldn't due to the distance and trees along with the loss of long antennas on the squad car.  
"How far did these kids go into the woods?" Officer Clark asked while he searched around and repeatedly called out the kids names every so often.   
"Ask the parents, they let them go unattended, along with complaining that its games that are corrupting their minds." Officer Bartle responded.  
"Hey, don't harp on games, especially Dissident Evil, he he, zombies in a city called 'Squirrel City' with a company called 'Poncho Inc.', gotta love it…" he said in response. He then stepped on something and heard a crunch. He looked down and saw a crushed skull under his shoe. He jumped off of it and called out to Bartle.  
"What the Hell is this doing here!?!?" he said while Bartle came over and saw the skull too.  
"I think that's a human skull…" Bartle said and then just heard a shriek from ahead and looked up. "What was that?" she asked with startled eyes to Clark.  
"I don't know, but that could've been one of the kids. We better check it out, it came from over there." He said pointing to a clearing.  
Clark and Bartle started to walk to the clearing when they saw a bright yellow heap to the left of them, sticking out from the trees.  
"What is that over there?" Clark asked while Bartle looked to where he was looking. Clark then started to walk over to it and Bartle followed too.  
The sun was already starting to go done so Clark took out his Mag Lite and shined on the heap and immediately turned away in horror. Bartle came over and saw why, it was Susan's body, crushed and bloodied in a heap where the Chimera fell on her.  
"What in God's name could've done this to a little girl?" Bartle said backing away from the body.  
"I don't know, but we better get back and report this before we go any farther." He said and suddenly jerked his head to a shriek from the same clearing before. "You think that whatever did this is the source of that noise?" Said Clark, tilting his head toward the clearing.  
"Yeah, but I think we should get back first then come back and check it out." Bartle responded to him.  
"Yeah, you're right, probably get some backup before we go any further here." He said when getting up and suddenly saw from the corner of his eye something running at an intense speed to them, brushing past branches and leaves, a claw outward at them.  
Officer Clark turned to it along with Bartle and watched as it came closer. The thing stopped and looked at them and hissed, the same monster that attacked the kids, the Chimera. The officers lifted their shotguns at it and were about to fire when it started to move at them…  
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The Chimera had been stalking the woods since it finished on the bodies of the two boys and then killed a deer in the forest. It was then returning to the little girl when it saw the officers. It stopped and observed the two cops, constantly lurking behind the trees as it continued to watch them.  
When it saw the two cops go near it's kill, it then decided to attack, it shrieked at them and started to charge at them, closing in on them like it did on the girl. As it neared them, it saw them pull something in front of their bodies, and stopped in its tracks. It cocked its head at them, trying to figure out what they were holding. It then decided to attack and started to charge at them…  
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Officer Clark and Bartle saw the Chimera start to charge again and they fired their shotguns at it, blasting simultaneously. The officers pumped their shotguns at it with the shells ejecting from the cache. One of the shots hit the Chimera in its left arm, the force knocking it back for a second while the shots ravaged it. The Chimera regained its composure and came charging. The Chimera was then a few feet in front of Clark and swiped at him, its claw came slashing down diagonally on his chest to his torso, slicing it open.  
Clark dropped the Armscor and looked down at his stomach, his internal organs spilling out onto the ground and his feet as he reached down to stop it. He then collapsed to his knees, looking up at the Chimera and then fell down dead to the ground.  
Bartle saw all this and fired her Beretta's last three shots at it, knocking it down to the ground for a second. She threw the gun down and withdrew her Glock 21 and turned and started to run from it. She ran as fast as she could from it, trying to get back to the squad car. She heard the Chimera getting up and coming after her, and decided to turn to it, looking over her right shoulder and firing wildly behind her.  
She heard the noise behind stop and figure that she killed it. She stopped and turned around, the sun settling more, darkness rising over the forest, as she tried to see where it was. She raised her gun into the direction of where it was last was, desperately looking for the monster. She made arm sweeps from left to right and vice versa, keeping her arms leveled, searching for the Chimera.  
She started to back up, gun still pointing ahead, and then heard a hiss behind her, and slowly turned around to see, expecting the worse. She then made a quick decision and jumped down to the ground to her right and fired up at it, while on her back. She shot two shots into its chest and fired one into its left eye, her last shot, but it didn't stop it.   
Bartle moved over onto her stomach and started to crawl as fast as she could, hoping against hope to get away, but she couldn't. The Chimera's claw came slicing down into her back, the claw catching onto her spine, being pulled out as it withdrew. It sliced again horizontally across the bottom of her back, cutting away her kidneys, spilling blood onto the ground and her uniform.  
The Chimera left the body and went over to Clark's body and feasted as the sun settled, allowing the darkness to fall upon the helpless city…  
  
"COME IN 1-8-4…."  
  
The operator on duty at the dispatch office in police station had been radioing 1-8-4, but still was receiving no answer back. The operator was in a rush since his shift was about to end in ten minutes and didn't want to have to file this before he left. He decided to try once more and then file a report for a car to go out to where 1-8-4 last was.  
"Tango 1-8-4, do you read, over?" the operator said into the microphone that sent the message out to all squad cars in the city. "Tango 1-8-4, do you copy, over." He said one more time and then became frustrated and slammed his hand on his desk and grabbed the microphone one more time and practically yelled into it "Tango 1-8-4, where the Hell are you guys!?!?!?". And with that, he let go of the microphone and slumped back into his seat and decided to call in his supervisor to tell him of the situation.  
  
PACKING SOME ACTION  
  
The two officers assigned to car 0-9-7 were taking their break at a donut shop and had been hearing the near frantic calls of Dispatch over their CB radios while drinking their coffees. They had just finished their break when the call came over the radio.  
"Charlie 0-9-7, Dispatch, come in, over." The operator said over the radios.  
"We just got off our break", said Senior Officer Jonathon Timble while grabbing his CB on his left shoulder, "Dispatch, this is Charlie 0-9-7, over." He said, while he stood there next to the squad car, leaning on the hood of it, his forty-two year old, six-foot figure towering over the hood.  
"Charlie 0-9-7, Dispatch, there seems to be a problem with Tango 1-8-4, they won't radio in or respond." The radio barked back at Officer Timble.  
"Yeah, I know, we've been listening Dispatch." He responded while looking at his partner, Officer Carteron, who was listening too while leaning against the fence that separated the donut shop's outside seating from the sidewalk.  
"Tango 1-8-4 was last sent out the Arklay Path to search for some missing kids, now both 1-8-4 and the kids are missing. You're being sent out to see what happened to them and report back anything, over."  
"Why don't you send out the helicopter instead of us, they'll get a better look and faster, over". Officer Timble said, frustrated over the idea.  
"The helicopter has been delayed due to mechanical problems, she won't be back for awhile, so, you're being sent out, no questions, understood, over."  
"Understood Dispatch, we're on it, over and out." Officer Timble said and the two got into the Crown Vic and made their way to the Arklay Path.  
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Chief Irons was sitting in his leather chair in his second floor office of the Raccoon Police Department and had just put down the report of missing squad car Tango 1-8-7. The Supervisor of the Dispatch had just delivered the report earlier and the Chief read it over twice and made up his mind. He reached over to his desk and picked up the receiver of the phone and dialed in the number of Srg. Cartell. After two rings, he picked up.  
"Cartell, this is Irons, you there?" said the Chief into the receiver.  
"Yeah, I'm here, what is it Chief Irons?" responded Srg. Cartell into his cell phone.  
"I received a report that one of my departments' cars has disappeared in the Arklay Mts., near the Cider District looking for some missing kids. They won't respond to calls and I just sent another car out there to find out what's going on." The Chief summarized the report and current events to Seg. Cartell.  
"You mean they're missing in the area of the mansion incident two months ago?" Cartell replied with an edge of questionable response in his voice.  
"Exactly, I thought I would notify you if this, since this may be related to my car and your lab out here."  
"I know, if anything else happens, call me and tell me, if the worse comes to worse, I'll take it from there." Cartell told the Chief in return.  
"I will, and don't forget, quid pro quo, understood?" the Chief stated to Cartell.  
"I know, and I will, keep in touch." And with that, Cartell hung up and started to develop the coming plan and strategy that was to take place in the Arklay Mts., and he knew it will come to that, whether he liked it or not…  
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Car 0-9-7 made the turn for Arklay Path, its headlights shining onto the sign displaying an illustration of the path trail. The Crown Vic rounded a turn, the Halogen headlights slicing through the forest trees, illuminating a deer that soon turned and ran. The squad finally saw the campsite and soon saw 1-8-4 nearby.  
"Dispatch, this is Charlie 0-9-7, we found 1-8-4 at the campsite, no sign of persons, over." Officer Cateron said while Officer Timble drove to the campsite.  
"Charlie 0-9-7, Dispatch, roger on that, over." The operator responded.   
0-9-7 pulled up horizontally to 1-8-4 and the two officers got out. It was already half past five in the afternoon, an hour after 1-8-4 and her officers disappeared and twenty minutes after it took 0-9-7 to get to Arklay Path. The sun was settling behind the hungering looking mountains, casting its' shadows upon the forest below, causing limited sight.  
The two officers each took out their Mag Lites and walked over to the other squad car. They approached while shining their flashlights onto the car. The car was dead, no lights on, partial dust covering it, doors locked, and no officers in sight.  
"Where are they?" Officer Cateron asked Timble.  
"I don't know", Officer Timble responded, "but it doesn't look like they're goofing off anymore."   
Officer Timble walked over to the driver side door, used his keys and opened it. He bent in to look around and then stood up and closed the door. He walked over to the trunk and opened and noticed the shotgun holsters empty.  
"They took added protection with them." Timble said as he closed the trunk and walked over to their squad car. He bent down into the open driver's window 0-9-7 and snatched the CB radio from the dashboard.  
"Dispatch, Charlie 0-9-7, checked 1-8-7, no sight of her officers but two shotguns are missing, over." Timble told Dispatch and leaned on the door while waiting for an answer.  
"Charlie 0-9-7, Dispatch, understood on status of car. Verify that two shotguns are missing, over." Dispatch told the two officers.  
"That's right Dispatch, two shotguns are missing from the trunk of 1-8-7, suspect that officers took them with them, over." Officer Timble said.  
"Charlie 0-9-7, roger that, suggest that you and your partner search surrounding area for clues or officers, over." Dispatch said back.  
"10-4 on that Dispatch, we'll report anything, over and out." Officer Timble said.   
"Think we should bring some extra power with us on this trek?" Officer Carteron asked while he shined the Mag Lite onto his hand while he leaned against the passenger door of 1-8-7.  
"What for?" Officer Timble asked back while he put the CB back on the dashboard and stood straight up, stretching too.  
"Maybe those officers knew something enough to bring shotguns with them during their search…" Carteron let the sentence trail off.  
"Yeah, but I don't know…" he said.  
"Hey", Officer Carteron snapped back, "better safe than sorry right?" Carteron said, raising his eyebrows in the little light from the sunset.  
"Yeah, but they took shotguns with them, but they haven't returned have they?" said Timble.  
"So, we just bring something heavier, powerful than shotguns, okay?" Carteron said while standing from the Crown Vic.  
"Yeah, you're right", Timble said while walking over to the back of 0-9-7 and into the trunk. He lifted the cover for the spare tire and took out the spare tire next. Under the tire was holster with a .357 Magnum Taurus Model 607 Revolver with its eight-inch barrel. He lifted it up into the lowering sunlight, and checked it for grease marks or scratches on his baby.  
"Holy…" spurted Carteron to Timble, "where the Hell did you hide that thing!?!?"  
"He he, it's a secret" Timble said back, "I've been waiting to use this for so long in real action, maybe today is the day." He said while spinning the cylinder with its ammo, and then slapped it with the palm of his hand into its home. He then holstered it into the side holster suspending from his shoulders.  
"Looks good on ya man, real good…" Crateron said, dragging out the last two words in emphasis.  
"Really?" Timble asked while adjusting the straps of the holster.  
"Yep, now hand me that Armscor in there, should pack some punch."  
"Here, catch." Timble said while he tossed the Armscor M-30SAS, the same that Officer Clark used.  
Carteron caught the Armscor and loaded it with 12-ga. shells and pumped it ready. Officer withdrew his Taurus and put it back in its holster and withdrew his Glock 21.  
"Hey" asked Carteron, "what's all the hub bub with the Glock?"  
"You think I want to shoot one of the kids or an officer with the Taurus by accident in this dark." Said Timble. "At least with the Glock, they'll survive the shot, the Taurus will blow you away six ways from Sunday." He said with a grin and cocked his Glock.  
"Yeah, you're right, but I'll keep the Armscor ready as backup just in case, you know…" Carteron said while jabbing his shotgun into the dark patches of the forest while partially hunching over with a squinched look on his face.  
"Yeah. Well, we're ready, lock, stock and ready to go blast up some mountains." Timble said and both went off into the darkening forest as the sun crept away with the last of its life while the two left 1-8-7 and 0-9-7 in dark behind to go fight the 'bad guys'…  
  
PREPARATION   
  
Srg. Cartell was in the second floor control office in a warehouse in the city. The entrance doors were one hundred feet tall, enough clearance to fit a helicopter. Inside on the main floor, were two Peterbilt tractor-trailers, each painted metallic black. One of them was an information gathering vehicle, containing high processing units, encrypting and decrypting equipment, satellite communication devices, global positioning systems, support information and backup. The other one was a transport vehicle for troops and counter-action forces. Included on the main floor was four Chevy Silverados, also in black, used in transport of high officers and officials.   
Umbrella troops were working and loading the semis and preparing them for combat use as per order of Srg. Cartell. They were loading Colt Match HBAR Rifles with .223caliber with advanced 800meter rear sighting. Also, with Barrett Model 82A-1 Semi-Automatic Rifles with its huge .50 BMG bullets, 29" barrel and 10-shot clips packing massive firepower. M-60 LMG Automatic machine guns were loaded with 7.62mm bullets with bipods, loaded along with them were M203 machine guns with grenade launcher attachments under barrel and the H&K MP5 submachine gun with silencer attached as the standard guns for the upcoming mission.   
And the final gun to be used in just the highest heat of battle, finally being attached to the roof of the tractor, bolted and welded down and securely fastened down to a swivel base for 360 degree turns and 60 degree point, was the MK33 3-inch/50-caliber anti-aircraft gun. This was the ultimate in protection, having been used successfully in previous containments by Umbrella. Srg. Cartell have specifically requested the MK33, knowing that such an incident that was to arise would and had used it before in previous incidents. The MK33 had spring coiled and cushioned double barrels with automatic fed computer tracking and automatically loaded ammo units attached. The MK33 had been used by the US Navy on warships for anti-aircraft protection, but had been replaced by the Vulcan/Phalanx NATO Seasparrow missile systems, leading to Umbrella's easily acquirement of them, in small, vast amounts for 'personal' use. The weight alone of it led to the custom made Perterbilt semi, with steel beams running along the inside of the truck for roof support, along steel girders along the side to hold up the weight as a foundation. The transport truck was alone a tank upon itself, almost, with the troops as an added backup. But, Umbrella had specifically ordered and outlined to the use of the MK33, it was only to be used in the utmost dire situations and in emergencies, the reasons to it being clearly seen.  
As the artillery was being loaded, Srg. Cartell was in the second floor control officer looking at an aerial view of Raccoon City and Raccoon Forest on the wall along with geographical maps of them. He had enhanced views of the Arklay Forest and the Cider District, but they were over two years old, the mansion and its surrounding grounds clearly seen on the pictures. He then decided on a matter he should've done a while ago. He walked over to a deep blue phone set attached to the west hall and picked it up and turned to his top Lieutenant in room and called him over.  
"Lieutenant, I need the secured number to Umbrella Sat Ops, I'm gonna have to pull alotta strings to do what I'm about to do." Srg. Cartell told the Lieutenant, and off he went to a file cabinet and pulled out a handbook and found the number and returned to Srg. Cartell.  
"Thank you", he said back, "now find out how many subjects we may have to go against."  
"Sir, Yes, Sir!" the Lieutenant replied, snapped his feet, saluted and turned to his duties.  
Srg. Cartell finally got through to the Sat Ops division of Umbrella and spoke to the Commander in Charge. After said hellos and updates, he asked his big favor of him.  
"Hey Major Domo, I need to use one of the satellites, a high resolution, thermal imaging one if you can." Srg. Cartell asked.  
"What!?!?" Maj. Domo said snapped back.  
"You've heard about Raccoon City right? And the Arklay incident a while back?" Srg. Cartell asked.  
"Yeah, Umbrella's worried over the city, rumor is it might become a big liability to them. What about it?" Maj. Domo asked, curious of the question.  
"I'm in Raccoon City, and I need to use that satellite to check something. If has to do with the Arklay incident, we may have a potential outbreak on our hands if I can't find out. I may have to run an op in the forest here, we're getting reports of missing squad cars. Listen, I don't want to get into details and have to involve you, I just need the satellite."   
There was a moment of silence on the other end, then finally an answer.  
"Oh, alright, but you'll only have for one hour, that's all. I can't let the sat out too long before my shift ends. I'll send the receiving frequency of the sat and its suspected coverage." Maj. Domo replied.  
"Thanks, I owe you one, who knows, this might be a feather in your cap." Srg. Cartell said back.  
"Yeah, yeah" said Maj. Domo. "Remember, one hour, that's all." And then he hung up.  
  
A HUNTING WE AGO…  
  
Officers Timble and Carteron were trekking through the Arklay Mts. with their guns in hand. It had been only twenty minutes since they left 0-9-7 behind and were about to turn back to get backup to help when they thought they saw something.  
"Did you see that?" asked Officer Carteron.  
"Yeah, could've been a deer or something else." Officer Timble said back and turned about to go back to the car.  
"Yeah, well, it's that something else I'm worried about." Officer Carteron said back and turned back with Timble, making way back to the car too.  
Officer Carteron had turned off his Mag Lite and put it away while Timble had his on in front of him, dark having fallen already. They were walking, their shoes crunching twigs and leaves on the ground.  
"You know", Carteron said, "this is going to turn into a media stint. Missing kids, along with police officers. With the other things happening already, this is just going to add on top of it."  
"Yeah, well" Officer Timble said, "it's not-" He stopped suddenly in his tracks as a figure ran in front of the edge of the flashlight beam on the ground, its speed phenomenal. He heard it run through the forest to his right, crunching branches under its feet.  
"Wha…what was that?" asked Officer Carteron to Timble, his voice clearly shaken.  
"I don't know…" Officer Timble said back, a tinge of a calm 'Oh Shit' in his voice. There was a low, hiss like 'Ahhh' to his right, and he brought his Mag Lite slowly to the right, afraid to do it, but knowing he had to.  
Officer Carteron brought his Armscor up to shoulder level and tracked Timble's flashlight beam with the tip of the barrel. As Timble dragged the beam along the ground to the sound, he aimed his Glock alongside his light. The flashlight trailed a line of rocks and leaves, then, finally stopped on the hind legs of the 'thing' that ran by. Timble slowly raised the light up along the body of the creature and then saw the claw arm, then that was when he rushed the light up to the face and saw the Chimera's mouth gape open at him and hissed. Timble immediately dropped the flashlight and yelled just one word.  
"RUN!!!!"  
  
COMING ABOUT  
  
The Umbrella Satellite QTR-375 moved gracefully through the upper atmosphere of Earth. Developed exclusively by Umbrella for use by them, it contained thermal imaging devices, enhancement utilities and lenses, a global positioning system, layered scopes with tinted coverage along with a full load of other devices. Being held by Earth's gravity field, it moved over to its programmed position. The solar panels spread open to receive the last light from the sun before changing over to its batteries. It then sent out a signal toward the earth, to be picked up within a nanosecond.   
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"Sir", the Lieutenant said to Srg. Cartell, calling to his attention. "We just received the signal, the QTR-375 is ready to receive."  
"Alright, let's start, we don't have much tim-" he cut off as the screen of the QTR-375's camera cut off, leaving a screen of static behind. "What, what happened!?!?" Srg. Cartell demanded.  
"I… I don't know sir," the Lieutenant replied, "we seem to have lost the signal. I'll try and get it back sir." He said as he went typing commands onto the computer screen, attempting to regain the signal back.  
"Well, you better hurry." Srg. Cartell said as he walked away.  
  
RUN LIKE YOU'VE NEVER RAN BEFORE  
  
Timble and Carteron were both running back to the squad cars for safety, scrambling through the forest in the dark. The Chimera, a different one than the one that attacked Clark and Bartle, was chasing them, stampeding-like through the forest, hissing with foam flowing through its mouth. Timble and Carteron felt it behind them, gaining speed on them, and then yelled at each other.  
"Maybe we should…" Carteron said, gasping through breaths while speaking and running at the same time, "we should take cover and fire back at that thing…. Look at what we got, a God damn .357 and a shotgun."  
"Okay… we'll take cover over there, behind that tree." Timble said, pointing in the dark to the tree, his direction just barely seen.   
Both ran over to the Oak tree and gained cover on the opposite side and withdrew their guns. Timble took out his Taurus and aimed back at the direction they came from while Carteron brought the Armscor to eyelevel and readied. Both Timble and Carteron couldn't see anything in the dark forest, under a moonless sky.  
"Get your Mag out Carteron, what can we shoot at, if we can't see it." Officer Timble said to him while Carteron fumbled to retrieve the flashlight.  
Carteron shined the light into the darkness, piercing it like a knife. He made 180 sweeps, left to right, shining trees, branches, rocks, but no creatures were seen. He then turned around and shone the light behind him, making the same sweeps, but still saw nothing.  
"Where the Hell is it!?!?" said Carteron to Timble while he still looked.  
"Just keep looking…." Timble trailed off, looking himself for it.  
There was a crack above them and they both looked up, Carteron shining his light up too. He then saw it. The Chimera was standing on a branch, hunching over, peering down on them, its saliva and foam dripping down to below. The branch then snapped suddenly and the Chimera fell down to below, it too surprised and screeching during the fall, outreaching to anything to stop itself.  
Timble and Carteron scrambled away from the base of the tree just as it fell to the Chimera fell to the ground. They both got up and aimed their guns at it, ready to shoot if it moved, Carteron shining the light on it. Timble had his Taurus aimed at the body along with Carteron with his Armscor. The Chimera then twitched and both fired at it, Timble's Taurus blew away its lower abdomen while Carteron's shotgun blew away the bark of the tree and hit it in it's leg and hit it in its groin area during his three shots.  
They both stood for a while, waiting for it to move again, but it didn't. Timble them motioned with his gun for Carteron to go check the body. Carteron then, hastily and reluctantly, went over, his Armscor ready and pointing at it. As he neared, he aimed the gun at its head and checked the body. 'Seems dead enough to me…' he thought and then slowly backed away, still aiming at it. The Chimera, in a either reflex or a still alive move, moved its claw arm at Carteron, up toward him, the claw making contact from just under his right armpit to his right side in line to, cutting through the Kevlar vest and cutting into his skin. Carteron brought the shotgun to its head and fired, instantly upon impact of the bullet, the head exploded, shattering the pieces onto the bark of the tree behind it. Carteron then collapsed to the ground, holding his right side. Timble rushed over to his side and helped him stand up with his aide.   
"Come on bud, let's get back to the car, get some help for you." Timble said while they both stood up and made their way back to 0-9-7.  
"I…feel like someone… is running a hot poker into my side…" Carteron said, while blood soaked his light blue uniform and his hand.  
Timble looked at his wound and saw that it was deep then he hurried his pace. 'Just have to get to the car, then call for help, crap, it's dark…'  
  
BACK ONLINE  
  
The Lieutenant typed away at the keyboard, trying to get back the signal. He was using Telnet to access a Cisco router that would give him access to the QTR-375's connection interfaces and was looking at the following screen:  
*Note: Parentheses show what the command does, that before is the actual display  
  
BioOps enable (access the Privileged EXEC mode)  
BioOps password enter… (enter password to enter Privileged EXEC Mode)  
BioOps Tyrant (password)   
BioOps# (entered Privileged EXEC Mode)  
BioOps# configure terminal (command to enter router's database interface and modes)  
BioOps(config)# interface serial 0 (configure interface serial 0 IP address)  
BioOps(config-if)# route s0 to IP address 192.5.2.4 255.255.255.4 (route data to IP address 192.5.2.4 with a Subnet mask of four, IP address 192.5.2.4 being the Lieutenant's computer)  
BioOps(config-if)# routing… Done! (router is splitting info to Lt.'s computer and completed)  
BioOps(config-if)# exit (exit from interface Serial 0 interfacing)  
BioOps(config)# logout (logout's out of router and closes Telnet)  
Connection closed…  
  
The Lieutenant opened up the HyperTerminal program and established a connection with the router that is located in the warehouse. He then sent a command to route the info and connection to his computer. After that was done, the QTR-375's signal was reestablished to the screen and was displayed.  
"Got it Sir!" The Lieutenant exclaimed to Srg. Cartell, who came trotting over to the screen. The entire thing took about fifteen minutes to do.  
"Good work Lieutenant, now lets see what we have…" he said as he looked at the screen. "Lets get a view of the overall forest first." He said, while the Lieutenant typed in commands. A view of the forest was displayed, but it was limited due to the darkness.  
"Alright, use the night vision enhancement and get another picture." He said while another picture came up.  
This time, the forest could be seen, along with the remains of the Spencer Mansion and its grounds. The mansion had completely collapsed upon itself, while the Guard House was collapsed, but some parts were standing in some places. The water fountain had collapsed, creating a hole on the ground with a mound of rubble at the bottom. The Garden area and the outside grounds were demolished. But, a clearance could be seen where there was a opening or hole in the ground with metal reflecting the back, showing something man made. And Srg. Cartel caught this.  
"Zoom in on here" he said pointing to the area, " and enhance it too."   
The Lt. Did so and the opening was seen, and also, at that time, a yellow light that was blinking could be seen at times on the display from the live video feed from the satellite. Srg. Cartell mumbled something then said.  
"Bring the view back to before, but this time use thermal imaging." He said while the Lt. typed in more commands.   
The screen then lit up in varying patches of red, displaying heat sources in white with those not in red. The forest could be seen with its' trees in red and several heat sources popped up. One of them was a big source and a little source, most likely a deer and its offspring. There were also a group of small heat sources, birds. The two squad cars could be seen, the hoods of the cars white due to the engines. But, Srg. Cartell saw, there was a heap of white by a tree and two subjects were moving away from it, one seemed to like they were limping, a small line of white behind them.  
"Zoom in here, on those two moving subjects there." Srg. Cartell said pointing.  
"Yes sir." Lieutenant said as his fingers flew across the board with commands.  
The view zoomed in to within ten feet of them, the two white subjects giving off heat. One could be seen limping with the aide of the other person. The persons could also be seen carrying weapons, a shotgun by the shape. Caps could be seen on their heads, the badges reflecting the thermal rays back. And then, Srg. Cartell knew who they were and what they were doing there.   
"They're police officers…" Srg. Cartell said.  
"Police, sir…?" The Lieutenant asked back.  
"Yeah, this is just getting worse hour-by-hour. Zoom back out, see if there are any other loose subjects other than the one they killed."   
The display blinked then came back with an enlarged picture of the forest in thermal imaging. This time, Srg. Cartell was looking over the entire forest, and noticed a pack of heat sources in the right top portion of the screen. Five or so subjects were on the left of the display, near the opening of the laboratory. And a solitary subject moving about the forest not so far from the campsite with the squad cars.  
"Get in close over here by that pack of subjects." Said Srg. Cartell, making an oval with his index finger over the area of the pack.  
The satellite's scope zoomed in to the area, to within twenty feet to include the entire pack. There were about twenty of them, mulling around, some on the ground, while some were eating a deer by the display. The computer enhanced and cleared the real time feed and the subjects could be seen, Hunters.  
"Shit, Hunters…" Srg. Cartell said while he looked down. The Lieutenant knew about the Hunters, heard how they ripped into your flesh and swiped your head off, but, the image was interrupted by Srg. Cartell.  
"Come back out and zoom back on the pack of subjects, the five or so one."  
"Yes sir." The Lieutenant said, erasing the thought from earlier and typed.  
The display came out, then, the Lieutenant brought the cursor over to the pack and dragged, creating a square over the unit, then clicked. The display zoomed in, positioning itself over the pack. The pack was hovering over something on the ground, fevering away at something, but couldn't be seen by the zoom.  
"Zoom in more on that one, the one busied." Srg. Cartell pointed to the one he was talking about.  
The display zoomed in on the subject, and what it was doing was seen also. The now seen Chimera was eating at a body, the legs and arms clearly seen strutting out from under the Chimera. It was an adult by the size, then, Srg. Cartell saw a handgun near the body, less than a few feet away. 'Crap, another police officer, Irons must've meant this. This was the disappearance of the car…and the kids, oh no…' Srg. Cartell thought. He shook his head and looked up to the Lieutenant.  
"Scan back out, follow those officers till they get to the car over there." He said pointing to one of the squad cars they were headed to. "Call me when they close in."  
"Yes sir."  
Srg. Cartell walked from the display and flipped open his cell phone and dialed. When the phone finally picked up, he spoke.  
"Chief Irons, yeah, we may have a bigger problem…"  
  
ALMOST THERE  
  
Officers Timble and Carteron were nearing 0-9-7, only a few hundred feet away, unaware of the prying eyes above from the satellite. Officer Carteron had been bleeding extensively since the attack, leaving a trail of blood behind while he limped back with Timble's help. Officer Timble tried the CB radio on his left shoulder, but still couldn't reach Dispatch. He knew he had to get to the squad car, to call Dispatch, get Carteron help and get some backup up here.  
"Damn…" Timble said as he put the radio back on his shoulder.  
"What'd you say?" Officer Carteron asked Timble, his face turning pale and his body becoming sluggish while still carrying the Armscor at his side in his right hand, blood trickling down to the tip of the barrel.  
"Don't worry, it's nothing." Officer Timble said back, looking at him and worrying. 'We're almost to the car, then we're outta here." Timble looked ahead, straining his eyes to see ahead in the near pitch darkness.  
The car then came into sight, just a little, but enough to tell it was the two squad cars. They neared the two cars when Timble heard a noise, but didn't pay any attention to it, his attention focused on 0-9-7.  
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The solitary figure that was not so far away from the campsite was nearing close in. It picked up the scent of blood that Officer Carteron was trailing behind him. Its green scaly body moved through the forest, the claws on its feet digging into the ground as it walked. The Hunter continued to the campsite.  
The Hunter then saw the two officers ahead and slowed. It hid behind a tree and peeked around it toward the two. It then decided to move to the two cars it saw, the white and black reflecting back into his cerebral image of his mind, drawing his attention. He moved toward the two cars.  
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Officers Timbel and Carteron finally got to car 0-9-7 and Timble opened the passenger door and set Carteron down onto the seat. Timble then went over to the driver's side and got in. He immediately picked up the CB radio on the dashboard.  
"Dispatch, Dispatch, this Charlie 0-9-7, do you read, over." Officer Timble said into the CB radio piece, a state of urgency in his voice.  
"Charlie 0-9-7, where the Hell have you been. We- " the Dispatch operator was cut off as Timble interrupted.  
"No time to explain. I have an officer down, need a bus up here immediately. We're at the Arklay Path and we need back up here, possibly SWAT."  
"Wha…what!?!? Alright, an ambulance is on its way, now, explain what happened…"  
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The Hunter was at the edge of trees that led into the campsite and saw the two officers illuminated by the interior lights of the police car and Carteron halfway hanging out the passenger door. It then started to charge to 0-9-7 and just before it rammed into the car, it leaped into the air…  
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"Siiiiir!" the Lieutenant screamed to Srg. Cartell. Srg. Cartell came running over and immediately saw why he called. On the display showed the Hunter running toward the cop cars, and saw the two officers in the cars. The Hunter was making a beeline straight to the car, and then suddenly leaped through the air at the cop car…  
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Chief Irons had just gotten down to the Dispatch Officer and heard the Operator talking to the officer. Irons had just gotten word of the incident and rushed down after getting Cartell's report. He listened as the two talked over the CB radio sets. Only one thought ran through his mind, 'I need a vacation…'.  
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Officer Carteron was just about in shock when he saw it leaping through the air at the windshield. With his sum of last strength, he yelled.  
"TIMBLE!!" he screamed as he pulled his Armscor up toward the windshield and fired the last two shots.  
Officer Timble stopped talking into the CB piece and looked up and saw the Hunter flying through the air at the car. He dropped the radio, the piece jamming between the two front seats holding the talk piece down enabling Dispatch to hear everything. He pulled out his Taurus and aimed at the Hunter.  
Carteron's first shot missed because of his injury while he held the shotgun with his left hand. The second shot hit the Hunter in its left thigh, the Hunter moving back and to the left, slowing his speed a little. Timble fired his Taurus three times at the Hunter. The first two shots hit it in the chest, flipping the Hunter to do a half back flip. Because of that, the third shot missed the Hunter.   
The Hunter landed on the hood of 0-9-7, laying still for a sec while Timble and Carteron stared at it, both cautious. The Hunter suddenly jumped onto its hind legs and screeched into the shattered windshield, the two officers cringing from it. It then leaped onto the roof of the squad car with a loud thump.  
The two then slammed shut the doors of the car and then frantically reloaded their weapons. The two were then just about ready.  
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The Dispatch office at the police station became eerily quiet after they heard Carteron scream toward Timble. They were listening as they heard the gunshots from the radio and then the Hunter screech over the radio, them too cringing. A female officer that was in the office then covered her mouth with her hands and gaped as she further listened.  
"Try to contact them." Chief Irons told the Dispatch officer at the radio.  
"I can't sir, they have the talk button pressed. All cars and us will only be hearing what is happening as long as they have the button pressed." The Dispatch officer replied.  
'Crap, now everyone is gonna hear this. Even the media who always have CB scanners and are listening. Oh, this is gonna be a fun party now..' the Chief thought as he stood there and listened.  
They all listened as the sounds still came in over the radio from inside 0-9-7…  
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Srg. Cartell watched as he saw the Hunter fly through the air and then bright flashes and the Hunter go flipping in the air. He thought it was dead when it didn't move on the hood of 0-9-7, but when it jumped up and onto the roof, he knew it was just beginning.   
He was listening to the CB radio, which was always tuned to the police frequency and heard the sounds in real time. Some of the others in the room were starting to watch the satellite feed and listening to the radio. Srg. Cartell watched as the Hunter was about to slice into the roof of the car when he saw….   
The two officers finally finished loading and both nodded to each other and aimed up at the roof and fired. Timble fired his Glock while Carteron with his Armscor. They both kept firing till they were just about out, shooting the whole roof up. When they finished, the strobes were shattered and smashed and hanging onto the roof just barely.   
They sat there still, they guns still aimed up at the roof and waited for any noise. Suddenly, the passenger door was ripped off from its hinges and flung across the campsite. Carteron moved slightly to his left and looked out the new opening within a second when a green scaly arm came reaching down and grabbed Carteron at his right shoulder and pulled out up to the roof.   
Timble sat in the driver's seat wide eyed at what happened and listened. He heard shotgun blasts and saw the flashes from above the roof from the missing passenger door and then heard Carteron scream and then a slash. Blood came running down the windshield and along edge of passenger door entrance. He then heard snap and heard a thump on the roof and knew the worse.  
He fumbled at the keys in the ignition and started the squad car, the headlights and interior lighting up instantly. Just then the Hunter's claw cam ripping down into the roof near Timble's head. Timble put the car into reverse and slammed down on the gas and the car screeched on the dirt backwards. Doing so, Carteron's headless body flew from the roof of the squad car along with his head and onto the ground in front of where the car was while the Hunter was whipped back and forward toward the hood of the car, its claw arm holding him still to the car.   
Timble then made a sharp turn of the steering wheel to the left with his foot still on the gas. The squad car partially spun out a little and lost traction and kept going to the left despite Timble turning to the right. The Crown Vic's right side went smashing into the rear of 1-8-4, crumpling it on impact and smashing the right side of 0-9-7 in. The hit ripped the Hunter off of the roof and threw it into the rear window of 1-8-4 while Timble was whipped toward the passenger seat.   
The hood of 0-9-7 was smoking and Timble got out and stumbled onto the ground. He threw down his Glock and took out Taurus and readied it at 0-9-7 and the rear of 1-8-4 while staggering backwards. His head was hurting and he finally stopped and listened. The radiator of 0-9-7 was hissing and leaking anti-freeze while the engine kept trying to turn over.   
The roof of 1-8-4 was torn upward and the Hunter sprang out up into the air and at Timble. Timble saw the Hunter and brought the Taurus up at it and fired four times at it, all four hitting squarely in the chest. But, while going through the air, the Hunter had its claw out toward Timble and when it came down after being shot dead, its claw was still outstretched and struck into Timble's chest.   
Both the Hunter and Timble came down onto the Earth dead, the claw in Timble's chest bleeding extensively while the Hunter's blood ooze leaked onto Timble. 0-9-7 smoked fifteen feet from the two, only its left headlight and rear lights still on with half the roof of 1-8-4 pointing up. One thing was for sure though, backup would soon come…  
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Srg. Cartell watched the horror unfold on the monitor from the satellite feed the whole time as the rest of the room gasped at it. The hour was up ad the satellite feed cut-off, leaving snow behind. Srg. Cartell then started his plan that he was preparing for now.  
  
  
"AVON CALLING!"  
  
As soon as the radio went quiet in the Dispatch office in the Raccoon Police Department, everyone was quiet and trying not to visualize what might had happened to Timble and Cateron. Chief Irons was thinking while he stood there staring at the CB radio station with his right hand cupped on his chin.  
'Monkey tails… Two cars down and four dead. I guess Cartell will have to do his plan and tonight at latest. I better call him and give the go.' The Chief thought and started to leave the room when he remembered the media.  
'They heard this too over the scanners and probably starting to go Arklay Path, better stop them now…' He walked over to the Dispatch Operator and started to talk.  
"Notify all cars not to let anyone, including the media, from going anywhere near Arklay Path." The Chief said while the Operator nodded back. "Four of ours have died and I'm not gonna let no stupid news person tread on their bodies. Clear?" He said with a stern face to the Operator.  
"Yes, sir!" And the Operator turned to the radio and started spitting out orders over the radio according to the Chiefs' wishes.  
The Chief left the room and went to his office on the second floor. He got to his leather chair and plopped down with a whish if air squeezing from the heavily compressed cushion. He reached over to the Lucent Technologies phone and picked up the handset from the base. He pressed a transfer button on the base labeled with a red sticker next to it and a secured line was established over his phone with the phone trunks in the basement of the station.  
He dialed in Sgt. Cartell's secure number at the warehouse and listened as he heard static and a series of clicks as the peer-to-peer connection was made between the two secured phones. The phone rang once and was picked up by a Lieutenant.  
"Umbrella Incorporated Biohazard Operations Containment Unit Four, Lt. Joel speaking." The Lieutenant said over the heavy weighted light blue handset in his hand while sitting at drab gray metal desk on the second floor of the warehouse where Sgt. Cartell was. The Lt. was two rooms down from the Control Room where Sgt. Cartell currently was.  
"I need to speak to Sgt. Cartell immediately." The Chief said   
"Yes, sir, please hold." Lt. Joel didn't need to ask who wanted to speak to Sgt. Cartell because it was enough that you knew how to contact them.  
Lt. Joel pressed a yellow button on the blue scrambled phone's base, transferring a page call to the control room while placing the Chief's call on hold for now. A same light blue color phone rang in the Control Room near the Operations Arrangement desk and was picked up immediately.  
"Corporal Lewsky, what is needed?" the young blond crew cut 23-yr old said over the phone before Lt. Joel could speak.  
"Transfer call for Sgt. Cartell. Line four on scrambled." Lt. Joel said while he filled out a last operations assessment paper from last month's assignment in South America.   
"Roger, transfer now to line six, scrambled." Corporal Lewsky said while reconfigured a few wire sets for the call.  
A rumble was heard from some distance away from the warehouse followed by a small shake in the control room. From Chief Irons office, the noise was an explosion just three blocks from the police station and the aftershock was strong enough to shake pictures in his office from the wall to the floor. All phones, including Umbrella's in the warehouse and the police station, went dead with a hiss left behind on the ear sets. All communication went out in the entire city to the outside world, some phone lines still were working, but not for long…  
  
HAKUSHO-2501  
  
The next day after Chief Irons went to call Sgt. Cartell, an operation was in place. Sgt. Cartell had sent three men into the sewers to enter the laboratory underneath the city to release a chemical detergent in the lab. The chemical, known as Hakusho-2501, was a dissolvent that was gas released by filters and settled onto objects. After a time interval of two hours, Hakusho-2501 would transverse into a gooey liquid and cling to the objects it was in contact with.   
Hakusho-2501 then ate away at the chemical bonds of all objects it was in contact with, including living organisms. It worked by combining Hydrochloric Acid with a genetically altered strain of the Flesh Eating virus and intertwining it with the chemical agent that causes rust on objects. This finished product then was able to dissolve, eat away with, and completely resolute everything to nothing.  
Haksuho-2501 had been used and tested by Umbrella, and was exclusive to them. In tests, it was seen to continue to eat away everything continuously without delay or obstructions on everything. Objects included tables, doors, chairs, wood, a titanium-reinforced safe with two inches of steel, and humans. From zombies, Lickers, Hunters and other projects, it rid of everything in different times, nothing was left.   
On metal, the chemical agent for rust came into play, after it was done, or what wasn't eaten away with, Haksuho-2501 would activate the rust agent on anything metal, turning everything into rust that came into contact. The object of this was to turn everything that wasn't destroyed, into useless junk for anyone and to give the effect that the stuff had been there for some time with the rust effect. But, Hakusho-2501 had one drawback, it kept going.   
In one test, Hakusho-2501 was used in a room with subjects. It then ate away at them, and the walls. The scientists hadn't thought of that the chemical would keep going and continue to spread and eat away. It spread to the control room of the test site of Umbrella's, into the hallways and the Living Quarters, killing those asleep. The test site was being destroyed from within, and Umbrella spent two days coming up with a counteractive to Hakusho-2501. It ended the chemical's spree at the site, but it killed sixty-seven people in the process and damaged the test facility too severely for any repair, completely destroying more than seventy-five percent of the facility. Umbrella demolished the site and added the chemical developed to neutralize Hakusho-2501 into the chemical structure of Hakusho-2501, such that Haksuho-2501 was completely stopped and disappeared due to the new chemical added after eight hours from when it activated, enough time for the chemical to do its job and severely damage the components of the victim. In total, ten hours from when it was released as a gas, Hakusho-2501 would be no more.  
Sgt. Cartell deployed the chemical for this mission to use it in the lab, to destroy any evidence. But, when it was released as a gas, if it entered the lungs of humans, it had dire effects on them. So, he had the three men bring along four tanks of compressed Oxygen, three thousand pounds of it with them to breathe after it was released. Easy operation.  
  
ELECTRICAL AND SEWAGE DISPOSAL COMPANY   
  
Two black Chevy Silverados turned the corner down the street at 7:24AM on the slightly wet asphalt of Cumberland St. There were three people walking down the street, and two elderly ladies sitting outside their apartment building chatting to each other. They seemed stubborn to the reports of the attacks and had lived in Raccoon City their entire lives these ladies.  
The Silverados grazed to a stop by a manhole at about mid-block of the street. The two drivers never got out of the light trucks, but intently stared forward out the windshield. Three men got out of the first truck, looking around the block, taking note of the people there and moved toward the second one. They were dressed up as the local electric company, with hardhats and all. They opened the back doors of the first truck and retrieved their equipment, the four tanks and a metal case about 1'x 6"x 4" and one of them carefully gripped it in his left gloved hand.   
The two old ladies watched the three move about in the middle of the street. The three went over to the manhole and took out a crowbar. One them inserted it into the grip hole of the cover and pulled it open and over onto the street. They put the crowbar back into one of the backpacks. They lowered the four tanks into the manhole and then their equipment, which was clad in carpenter bags.   
One of them went over to the first truck and talked to the driver and walked away. The two Silverados pulled away down the street away from the three men at the manhole as the other one regrouped. The one with the small metal case went down first followed by the next two, the last closing the manhole after him.  
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The two old ladies saw one of the bags they were lifting down the hole and saw a gun barrel protruding out from the top. They both gasped and continued to peek from where they were sitting in their chairs precariously. They also noticed that the three were wearing black combat boots, instead of construction boots.   
After the three were down, the two old ladies ran inside and called 911.  
  
SUSPICIOUS INDIVIDUALS   
  
Two Raccoon City Police Department squad cars blasted down Thompson Ave. with their sirens at full and strobe lights flaring on the roofs of the two. They ran through three red lights, dodged a Honda Civic running a yellow and neared Cumberland St.  
The two old ladies were standing on the sidewalk near the manhole where the three men went down when they heard the police sirens nearing them. They both looked earnestly up the block toward the corner when they seen one cop car do a power slide around the corner, the driver hitting the brakes while nearing the corner then releasing his foot off the gas and jerking the wheel to the right for the turn, letting the rear suspension of the car do a right angle and a little more turn toward the left. He then turned the wheel to the left, regained control of car.   
Once the car was starting to straighten out, he hit the gas while the car was almost completely turned down toward the street, turned the wheel a little more to the left, and the car made the turn down the street, gaining speed to the spot. The second car hit the brakes and slowed down for the turn, making the turn safely, but above the average speed for a turn, not as 'cool' as the first car did the turn.  
The two squads screeched to a halt near the two ladies and the officers got out, sliding their nightstick into their belts and shifting their caps on their head. They left the strobes flashing on the two cars with one double parked in the street and the other right in the middle of the street, blocking any traffic from passing, the cars backing out or not turning down the street seeing the strobe lights.   
The four officers, two from each car, approached the two ladies as they stood there. Neighbors started to stream out from the buildings on the block to see what all the noise was about, especially with the incidents lately in the city. One person even called a news channel, thinking he could've gotten some money on the scoop to them if it was another "attack".  
"Evenin' ma'am." One of the officers said to the ladies, his index finger brought to the brim of his hat and gave a slight nod while in sequence. "I'm Lt. Hort and this is Officer Strom," Lt. Hort said pointing to the officer next to him.  
Officer Strom was in his mid-twenties and had broad shoulders and a crew cut of dark brown hair, compared to the wavy gray-black hair of Lt. Hort in his forties. Officer Strom gave a small nod in response toward to the two elderly ladies.  
"This Officer Imatey and Officer Tration of Special Reserve Section of the R.P.D." The two officers were normal citizens of the city that gave volunteer time to the police and had been doing so for four years to date under the name of 'Special Reserve Investigation Section'. "You called 911 earlier with a sighting of suspicious individuals or persons with weapons?" Lt. Hort asked the two ladies as they were fidgety to tell.  
"Yes", one of them said, her chin held up high as she said it.  
"They were three men, dressed up as Raccoon Electrical workers with the uniform and hard hats." The other old lady said to Lt. Hort, standing shorter than the other lady next to her. "They were carrying canvas bags and we saw a gun barrel sticking out from one of them. They-" the lady being cut-off by the other one.  
"They came by trucks and-" this time it was the other lady's turn to be cut-off.  
"Workers usually come by trucks ma'am." Officer Imatey said while taking notes and looking up for a second.  
"Black trucks?" She said back at him.  
"Yeah," Officer Imatey said, "maybe they're a special division of Raccoon Electrical."  
The other lady decided to jump between the two debacles going on. "What she means is that they came here by those SUV like things, they're like trucks and… you know." She said, tilting her head sideways saying it. Just then, a Ford Explorer came down the street and stopped seeing the squad cars. "That!" The old lady blurted out while pointing to it.  
The four officers turned around to see behind them to what she was pointing at. The driver in the Explorer saw the officers looking and the old lady pointing in his direction and he just looked from left to right of him and then in his rear view mirror and saw nothing, trying to see what they were looking at. He looked back at them with an expression of confusion and just slowly backed down the street in reverse from where he came and pulled out, still unsure of why they were looking at him.  
"That kind of car!" The old lady who was pointing said to them. "They came in that, but a different one. A…a…" she said trying to think.  
"A Expedition?" Officer Imatey said to her"  
"A Yukon perhaps?" Officer Strom said also.  
"Was it a Dodge?" Officer Tration put his two cents in too.  
"Maybe it was a Subaru?" Officer Strom added in again.  
"Enough," Lt. Hort said, stopping the three from playing 'Clue', "you're only making her even more confused."  
"It was like the one from T.V…." the other lady said after Lt. Hort was finished. "You know, the slogan… Umm…. 'Like a rock' I think…?" She said uncertainly to them.  
"You mean a Chevy?" Lt. Hort said.  
"Yeah, that Silver one or something." She said back.  
"A Chevy Silverado…" Officer Imatey said to the group.  
"Exactly, that were the two we seen come here just earlier."  
"How long ago was this?" Officer Strom asked the two.  
"Only about less than ten minutes ago from when they went down there."  
"Where?"  
"Right overrrr, there!", the old lady said looking and then finally pointing to the one the three men went down into. Lt. Hort motioned for the rest to come over to the cars.  
"Okay, I'm gonna send three of us down there. It's going to be Strom, Tration and me. Imatey, I want you to get on the horn and tell Central what we have here and the works. Tell them to send out another car here as backup and send them down once they get here. Bring them up to speed of what we have and trudge them on down.  
"The three of us", Lt. Hort continued as Officer Imatey went to the other car and got on the CB radio and Hort addressed the two there, "I want your weapons out and readied when we get down there. I take lead followed by Tration and then Strom. Oh yeah!" He stopped and turned to Imatey. "Tell Central to get us a copy of the sewer layout and design for when the other car gets here." Imatey nodded to the command and went back talking over the CB.  
Lt. Hort turned back to the other two and continued. "It's going to be dark and slippery down there. So, I want both of you to have you Mags out and shining when we get down there. Okay?" The two nodded. "Alright, Tration, go to the trunk and get the crowbar and bring it to the mandhole."  
Officer Tration retrieved the crowbar and with the help of Strom, they both lifted the cover off and onto the street. Strom took out his Mag Lite and shined it down the manhole, lighting up the crawl down ladder and a stream of water at the bottom. The sounds of sewage were heard to anyone near the manhole, and so was the smell of raw sewage de la teau. The other two came over and looked down too.   
"Well…" Lt. Hort said peeking down and looked up to the two. "I doubt any of you brought pairs of flood boots or a diver's suit?" He looked at both of them. "No? Well then, let's go." Lt. Hort was first to start down the ladder followed by Tration and then Strom who put his Mag Lite back in his harness.  
  
OPERATION… SLUDGE FEST  
  
The three men changed into their gear once they got down into the sewer. They each took out a Halogen light and shone it down both ends of the sewer. There were fog lights every so often in the tunnels, but too little to lighten the sewers. The sewage was splashing against the boots of the three and the tanks, the small metal case was still being held tightly.   
They each strapped an pure oxygen tank to their backs and one of them dragged along in a carriage the fourth tank. Each tank held approximately three hours of air for each, enough time for them. But the fourth tank was brought as a precaution. All three were wearing gasmasks on their faces, the feed disconnected. After they were ready, one them spoke.  
"Alright," the tallest one there and the bulkiest spoke to the other two, his mask being lit by the threes' lights in the sewers, a bask glow from the other lights illuminating his body. "The lab is that way, around that bend, two hundred twenty feet down." He said, referring to a turn in the sewers the way he was facing. "We'll use the GPS on our wrists to further find the lab, so, everyone, turn theirs on and load."  
All three lifted their left arms and pulled back the Kevlar arm sheath and activated the GPS, the small four-inch screen coming on and the system performing a POST. Once it finished, the screen displayed a password screen and each entered one in. After it accepted it, "Umbrella Inc., GPS Sat" came up with Umbrella's logo backwashed in the back. "Downloading data from nearby satellite, please hold…", the screen answered back after the Umbrella logo went away, downloading the GPS files for entry to the lab. The screen suddenly blinked four times and a map blew up on the screen, three red dots blinking near each other and located near the middle of a tunnel.  
"Everyone up and running?" he asked to the others and both nodded. "Okay, input in the directory on the bottom 'LTR567' for the lab, the GPS will automatically depict a route for you to follow. As you can see, all three of us are shown on the map, each of us a red dot. Okay, feed your mask now." And all three inserted their air hose into their masks from the air tanks. "Stick together and be alert, weapons out and ready, let's move out!"   
The three each took out an H&K MP5 machine gun and moved down the tunnel in a northeast direction, their boots splashing sewage onto them and their BTU's. The MP5's were slung across their chests with a strap and held by the grip and trigger with their right hand and the left holding the Halogen lights each. They were nearing the corner ahead of them when they heard sirens from above from a drain catch in the gutter.  
"Wait!" the leader said, his voice mimicking Darth Vader, holding up his right hand balled into a fist and the other two stop. They listened as the two squad cars blasted by above and screeched to a halt, hearing car doors opening and closing. "Must be another 'subject' attack, let's starting moving, we're wasting air." And with that, they started out again and rounded the turn.  
  
GUNSLINGERS   
  
The three officers finally got to the bottom of the ladder and into the sewers, one of them slipped on the third from last rung and had to jump to the bottom, his shoes causing a foot and a half swell and splash. The sewage hit the other two officers, Hort and Tration.  
"Ah! Son of a…" Tration yelled out into the sewer tunnel, echoing throughout as the sewage splashed onto his pants and into his shoes.  
"God damn it!" Yelled Lt. Hort back, "Shut the Hell up!" Hort took out his Mag Lite and turned it on, its light piercing the dark that wasn't illuminated by the fog lights, those that were still working.  
Tration took out his Glock and took the safety off of it and held his Mag Lite in his left hand, now two beams of light shining done each end of the tunnel. The tunnel was one hundred fifty feet in length from what they could see and tell. Strom had brought a Hawk HP9 Lawman shotgun with him as a standard regulation on this call. He had a light attached below the barrel of the shotgun and flipped it on too and pumped the shotgun ready.   
By now, all three had their weapons out, two Glocks and one shotgun. They were grouped by the base of the crawl-down ladder and looked around. The sewer tunnel had a short one-foot wide concrete landing that ran along the bottom of the wall on each side of the tunnel. Because of it's width and that it was covered with mold and garbage, they decided not to use them and walk instead in the two-inch deep sewage right down the middle.  
"Here's the deal." Lt. Hort said to the two, turning around from facing the northeast of the tunnel, where the three Umbrella paramilitary men went, but not knowing. His flashlight was shining back and forth between the other two. "Strom, since you have the shotgun, you take the southwest end of the tunnel, that way" he said pointing toward the opposite way where he was looking just before, "it looks like it continues that way for some while. Tration and me will take the northeast end of the tunnel, it turns just ahead and I want two men going that way to cover.  
"If you hear anything or see anything, get on the radio and tell me, we'll be over there as fast as we can. Alright, plan set, match." He said and the three went their way, Strom taking the southwest end and Hort and Tration going northeast.   
Their flashlights were beaming onto the molded walls of the sewers, a fog light blinking ahead of Tration and Hort around the turn. Their guns slung to their thighs as they continued on. Lt. Hort motioned with his hand for Tration to take lead while he moved up against the wall of the sewers against the turn.   
Tration was opposite of him across the tunnel and was crouching against the wall, his rear coming to level with the landing while he brought his Glock to eye level in the up position. The sewage water was splashing against him and his legs coming from the direction against him from the tunnel. Tration moved along in the tunnel crouching and leaning against the semi-curved molded walls, the sewage waste washing over his polished shoes as he scuttled them along the bottom on the tunnel. They both heard all of a sudden three loud bangs against metal, the sounds reverberating in the tunnel throughout.   
Hort turned his body so as it was facing toward and around the bend of the tunnel, ready to move into it and shoot in case. Tration stopped so that he wouldn't be seen by anyone on the other side of the tunnel. The blinking fog light was making a crackling noise down somewhere in the tunnel. Tration then peered his head into in the tunnel, his body staying out of sight from where he was. There was no one in the tunnel.  
Tration gave the clear sign and both stood up and brought their guns against their right thighs and slowly moved down the tunnel. There were three sets of fog lights, two weren't working and the third was blinking feverously, the tunnel lighting up so often in a yellow glow. There was another turn ahead of the tunnel, this time to the left at a forty-five degree turn, a replica of the bend before but that one was to the right. They had their Mag Lites out and were shining them along the passageway walls, but not around the next bend ahead.  
They neared the next turn, and got into their positions again, this time reversed between the two.  
  
ACCESS  
  
The three Umbrella paramilitary soldiers passed the same two turns that the two R.P.D. officers were at and were only five minutes ahead of them. After the second turn, the tunnel ran on for seventy feet and the tunnel floor ended at a run-off for the sewage with a hundred and fifty foot expansion and two hundred foot drop. But, fifteen feet before the run-off, a sewage pipe had been shattered and constantly sent a cascade of contaminated fresh water in a downward spray into the sewer stream.   
Hidden behind this cascade though, was a heavy steel door that was severely rusted from the water and was locked with security mechanism that unlocked the door from the lab. But, when the lab had the accident, the security section for this door went down, so the door was unlocked and the three knew that.  
Just hidden behind the waterfall was a shutoff valve for the broken pipe, though it was a mark contrast to anyone to know that that was what it was for. One of the men went over to the waterfall and gripped for the valve with his hands through the water, his body being washed over with the cascade while the one holding the case held the Halogen light at the door for him. The Umbrella agent heard a constant gush in his helmet from the water spraying at high force onto his helmet. He finally found the valve handle and gripped it with both his gloved hands and began to turn to the right.  
The valve refused to turn at first, but, after a hard yank to the right, it budged and began to turn, making a screech and grind noise with each turn of it. The water started to stop flowing out of the pipe while he turned the valve, continuing to do so till all that was dripping was a small stream, the steel door revealed now. The same one who turned the valve off moved over to the door and gripped the handle for it, wet rust coming off onto his black gloves. He tried at first to turn it open by moving it downward to unlock it, but, to no avail, it didn't move. He went into his backpack and took out a small sledgehammer and brought it down onto the handle.  
It took three hits to get the handle all the way pointing down in the open position, the rusted door now unlocked. He then put the hammer back away and moved toward the door again, grabbing hold of the handle. He tried at first to open it by pulling hard on the door, but it didn't move an inch. He tried a few more times but it never opened. The taller one came over and tried with the other one to open it. The third person was standing there, holding the metal case in his left hand still.   
The one who used the sledgehammer then took out the crowbar and handed it to the taller one who wedged it into the slit between the door and the tunnel wall. Once he pried it between the metal door and the frame and it was leveraged right, he applied pressure to it and tried to open the door. Despite repeated tries, the door wouldn't open.  
"This son of a bitch won't open for shit." The taller one with the crowbar said through grinding teeth as he tried to open the door. He stopped trying after a few attempts and threw the crowbar into the sewage, making a clanging noise.  
"Thing probably was never opened till now." He said looking around the sewer tunnel. "That or some jerk decided to weld it shut on the other side, which I hope not… Get that sledgehammer back out." He told the person who got it out earlier while he looked for the crowbar in the sewage in the dark. He found it and put it between the door and frame two inches below the place it was before.  
He got it in and took the sledgehammer from the other guy and checked again to make sure the crowbar was in okay. He struck it once and it didn't budge and hit it again and it made a cry. Another hit and it opened from the frame about half an inch. The tall one then repositioned the crowbar further in and made sure it was in solid. He took the sledgehammer and brought it down full force at the crowbar. The door opened from the frame but just enough to stick a finger into the opening only.  
He gave the crowbar back and the sledgehammer too to the guy and then turned back to the door and grabbed hold of it through the small opening. He pulled it open and the door let out a deep, low moan as in pain from its' hinges. He opened the door all the way till it was up against the wall of the tunnel and shone his light down the passage way.   
The passageway was lit directly above the door entrance with a light and sign that read: "Emergency Exit, Caution Advised In Use". Along the ceiling of the passageway were large work lights encased as domes with metal covers as those used in construction sites. Three were located along the passageway from the door before it turned to the left thirty feet from the doorway. The lights lit the way brightly and the passageway was made of concrete with nothing on it, no paint, no posters or signs, a desolate walk-through.  
"Alright," said the tall one as he shut his light off with its use over with for now and turned to the other two still in the sewer tunnel. "Baven and me will go in while Litten will stand guard here." He said, while both nodded to his plans.   
"We'll go in and release Hakusho in at the designated spot in the lab and return here, that'll take about thirty to forty five minutes to complete. If any of you lose sight or get lost, meet back here at this entrance. Okay?" Both nodded.  
He then turned through the doorway and prepared his weapon. The one holding the case in his left hand now, Baven, followed behind and had his MP-5 out in his right hand at a forty-five degree down angle. Litten stood in the sewers with his MP-5 down at the sewage brushing along his boots and repeatedly watched both ends of the sewer with his Halogen light. The police officers were around the corner of the sewers and ready to go…  
  
TRAILING BEHIND  
  
Officers Hort and Tration were at the second turn of the sewers, the final one that led to the entrance of the passageway to the lab where the Umbrella's men were just at. Hort and Tration were in position as before, but reversed and Hort peered around the corner. He immediately saw the paramilitary soldier in the tunnel, his back toward him looking down the other end of the tunnel at the run-off.  
"Better watch your step Litten, that next step is a woozy…" the Umbrella agent said to himself while looking down the two hundred foot run-off.  
He started to turn and Hort saw the MP-5 and moved back away. Hort gave a signal and both of them moved back down the tunnel away from the turn quietly and met.  
"What is it?" Tration whispered to Hort.  
"One man, wearing body armor with a MP-5 and gas mask." He answered back, whispering too. "Standing in middle of tunnel, seems to be a look out. May be more." He finished and reached for the CB radio piece on his left shoulder and spoke into it.  
"Strom, Hort, come in over." Hort said into it.  
"This is Strom, what is it, over." Strom's voice came in over the radio piece in the sewer, whispering as he heard Hort doing.  
"Get your ass over here on the double and quietly as you near the corners, we got suspects here, over."  
"Roger, on the way, over and out."   
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Strom got there in less than minute to the second corner where the other two were waiting. He moved slowly as he neared them, his feet making small splashes in the sewage.  
"What we got?" Strom asked Lt. Hort when he got next to him, whispering still to him in the darkening tunnel.  
"One man, body armor and a MP5 in the tunnel." Hort replied to him and continued. "Lookout, may be more, there's a door to the left about fifty feet from the bend here." He pointed to the bend while he spoke and the two watched as he did. "We'll flank him with Strom on the right of the tunnel with the shotgun and Tration on the left and I'll take the middle. When we're in place, Strom, you'll take an object and toss it down the tunnel on the other side of him when he isn't looking and we'll move in when he goes to check it out. Standard protocol, no shooting unless dire and 'Freeze'. Alright, let's do it."  
Strom took the right side of the tunnel while slowly moving up the turn and Tration took the left side. Hort waited and watched as the two did so and then finally moved when they were in place. Strom found a green tennis ball bobbing in the sewage, black and oozy from it. He reached for it and took it in his gloved hand, the tennis ball bled the sewage on his glove with some of it running down his arm into his shirt. He gave a shiver clearly visible by the other two and he face was clenched as in seeing something disgusting from the raw sewage on him. Tration saw this and smirked in the dank tunnel.  
Strom peaked around the corner toward the Umbrella soldier and just then he turned around. Strom quickly ducked back, just barely missed being seen by him. He waited ten seconds and then looked again. He was looking the other way. He then threw the ball to the left of the tunnel into the sewage, making splashing noise to him. Litten turned to the noise while the tennis ball bobbed up in the water.   
Behind him Hort moved in with Strom and Tration following short behind. While he was still facing back to the three, Hort yelled out at him, gun up and pointing with the other two, "Freeze!". The Umbrella agent froze with his back to the three officers while they held their guns at him. Litten fingered the trigger on the MP5 and licked his parched lips inside his mask, took a deep breath and made the decision…  
  
FREEZE!!!  
  
Braven and the leader were already around the first turn in the passageway. They were walking down the seventy-foot lead way ahead of them with three more corners to the lab. That's when they heard someone scream 'freeze' from behind. The leader turned around to Baven from the lead and both looked at each. They both knew that wasn't Litten's voice. The two of them rushed back to the corner they just rounded and pressed their backs against the clean concrete walls and poked their heads around the corner.  
They both saw Litten at the passageway door standing facing to the run-off frozen. They saw him finger his gun and his chest heave out and he made a drastic move. Litten dropped down to into the sewage water while turning his body to the left. He brought his gun up to head level while falling down and fired the clip behind them at the officers at a diagonal lift from right to left upward. His MP5's spray of bullets rippled into the tunnel walls and a fog light along the right wall, shattering its dull yellow plastic shell into the sewage. His range and angle of fire was too short to reach the other two officers, Strom and Hort, but he was able to slam Tration in his bulletproof chest and neck and sprayed the ceiling of the tunnel, concrete pieces falling down below.  
Hort and Strom dove down into the sewage in an attempt to avoid the gunfire. When Litten's clip ran out and he was in the sewage, his body covered in it and mask too, clabbering toward the passageway to the lab, the air tank a heavy burden on him. Hort looked over to Tration and saw him grabbing at his neck with both hands, gun in one still, blood pouring all over him. He fell back against the tunnel wall to his left, gagging and coughing up blood onto his uniform as he slid down the dirty moist wall. He finally slumped to the small landing, dead by that time, his eyes open in terror, hands in a death grip around his throat and fell into the sewage head first.  
Hort looked back to Litten as he desperately tried to reach for the knee knockers at the door way and at the same time loading his MP5. Hort screamed at him to freeze while Strom got up after seeing Tration's body floating dead in the sewage and aimed his gun at Litten too. Hort saw Litten load a fresh clip into the gun and fired at his hand, the bullet going through his hand and into the clip of the gun. Litten dropped the gun into the water and reached for a Glock 17 on his side pouch as the two slowly moved up toward him.   
He got it out of the holster and started to bring it up at the two when Hort fired four shots at him, three to the chest and one to the head after he realized he was wearing body armor. Litten fell dead into the sewage, gun lightly gripped in his hand as he died staring up at the molded ceiling of the sewer…  
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Baven and the leader watched as Litten put up a final fight and was shot to death in front of them. The leader took a grenade from his vest and pulled the pin from it. He held the slider as he turned the corner and ran a few feet down the passageway and tossed the grenade into the sewer tunnel. He ran back to where he was and the both of them turned the corner to shield from the blast.  
A few seconds later a blast rang in the sewer and smoke and debris were blown to where they were. A cloud of smoke was hanging in the air slightly, barring sight a little. The leader took a smoke canister from his vest, pulled the pin and rolled it down the passageway and stopped at the knee knocker of the steel doorframe. A cloud of smoke started to leave from the canister, the sewers quickly becoming engulfed with it. Baven and the leader turned on their infrared visors and moved than the tunnel, guns up and into the sewer…  
  
RELEASE  
  
Officers Strom and Hort saw the grenade fall into the water as it came out from the doorway.  
"Get back!" Hort screamed to Strom as he ran around the corner behind, Strom following close behind him.  
They just rounded the turn when the grenade went off, knocking them both down into the sewer from the explosion. They both got up, faces covered with sewage and soaking, sobbing wet from it. Strom searched for his shotgun in the sewage water around him where he fell while Hort had his gun still and stood up.  
"There's more of them in the passageway." He said. "We gotta get positions before they come out, try to get the upper hand on them. Come one!" He yelled at Strom as he finally found the shotgun.  
They rounded the corner from before and Strom was in front with the shotgun ready. Smoke started to pillow out from the doorway as they moved forward.  
"Smoke screen!" Strom said to Hort as he started to see the smoke the same time Hort did too.  
"I know, take right flank and be ready!" He said back as he took left of the tunnel as Strom took right against the wall aiming at the doorway opening crouching.  
"Huh?" Strom said as he saw the smoke screen get sucked down the run-off opening.  
Hort saw it too and figured it out. "It's the run-off, it's creating a suction from the water and the depth. That's where the slight breeze is coming from. Must be some other machinery down that's using a air filter too." He said as he crouched down along the left wall eight feet from left of the doorway.   
"All the better for us, they think the smoke screen is covering the whole sewer, they don't know that. We have advantage, they'll come out full of themselves." He continued on and got ready.  
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The leader took lead and told Baven to stay at the entrance with the case, the smoke canister hissing still from releasing the smoke still. The leader stepped into the seweage, looking about while Baven covered him in the doorway. He walked over to Litten's body and made sure he was dead. He then stood up, MP5 ready and moved away from the run-off a few feet and saw that the smoke screen was being pulled away toward. He then realized.   
"Get back!" He yelled at Baven turning for the doorway as gunfire erupted from the left of him. He felt pellets hit him in the back from a shotgun behind him and heard handgun fire. He turned and fired into the smoke screen with his best guess of where the gunfire was coming from.   
More automatic gunfire erupted as Baven began shooting too down the sewer, shell casings falling into water near him. The sewer took on the image of war as gunshots rang through out and muzzle flashes were seen everywhere.   
Strom continued to pump the shotgun of its' shells from where he saw the machine gun fire come from. He reloaded and moved in closer to the Umbrella soldier standing in the middle of the sewer, slowly backing up. He fired toward where the muzzle flash was, right at the chest and the leader went crashing down the sewer toward the run-off.  
The leader stopped himself just before falling off the run-off, his head hanging over the drop, sewage splashing against him. He got up as he saw the sewers light up in continuous flashes from the firefight. His tried to grab his MP5 before it went washing down the run-off, but was too late as it went off the side down below. He got out his Berretta and fired where he got shot. He heard someone grunt and then a splash, but the last thing he remembered was a pain in his head as he went off the side falling two hundred feet down.  
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Strom was firing into the passageway at Baven when a bullet hit him in his right thigh. He grunted and almost fell face into the sewage but fell against the wall to his right as support. He looked to where the shot came from and saw the leader at the run-off with a gun. He then tried to desperately to reload his Lawman after he emptied it.  
Hort was out of clips for his Glock and he saw the MP5 from Litten and picked it up and fired where the leader was after he saw Strom go down. He fired a three round burst at him and saw his head whip back and then his whole body go off the side, he best guess a head shot to him. He then turned to the passageway and searched for Baven while Strom finished reloading and struggled to position at the door. They both aimed and waited for all they knew, at least one soldier in the passageway. A sudden explosion from down in the run-off caught their attention, some smoke rising from it.   
"I don't know what that was, but we're freaking lucky that didn't spark a huge explosion from this sewage…" Hort said to Strom whispering.  
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Baven was crouched in the passageway away from the door ready with his MP5, breathing heavily and thinking with the thought that his leader was dead. After the explosion, he waited and decided to get into the lab was his best way right now from the police.   
He then stood up, the case still in his left hand and scuffled down the passageway away from the door to the sewers. He was just nearing the first corner away from the doorway when he was shot in his left calf, collapsing to concrete floor, blood soaking his BDU's as he struggled to turn to the doorway from the shot. He was on his right side with his MP5 still pointing to the wall, slowly moving it to the doorway.   
Baven saw the two officers standing near the doorway, guns pointing down toward him as their prepared to enter the passageway. He started to move his gun toward them, when it made a metal scrape on the concrete.  
"Don't even think about it!" Lt. Hort said to him as he moved into the passageway, shoes splashing against him with the MP5 still in hand and pointing.  
Baven knew if the cops arrested him, Umbrella would surely kill him before he was even put into a cell. Umbrella took care of their 'garbage' he heard from scuttlebutt, those that were either a threat or worthless to Umbrella. He wasn't the latter.  
He brought the MP5 up in a quick move and went to squeeze the trigger when a volley of bullets smashed into the wall to the left of him and then his body. He heard the pinging noises as the bullets ricocheted off the air tank on his back and then it became intensely hot and white.  
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Hort had been approaching Baven when he saw the MP5 come up. He then opened fire on him, aiming at his body and the tank on his back. He saw the sparks come off of the air tank, but by the time he realized to stop, it was too late…  
The tank on the back of Baven exploded from the impact of the bullets and the reaction from the sparks and pure oxygen lead to the tremendous explosion in the sewers. It completely engulfed the passageway, the heat exploding the lights on the ceiling above and covered Baven's body, burning him beyond the norm of first degree burns. The case warped from the heat but continued to stay closed, protecting Hakusho-2501.  
The fire and explosion then reached toward the two officers and the sewer. It was too late for Hort to move as he was caught in the path of the explosion, his body blown back from the changing heat and the force. He was slammed into the wall behind him, his head cracked open on impact, brains coming out but soon burned up from the heat just a split second later.   
Strom was in shock, his mouth agape as he watched the flames come at him at an intense speed, completely engulfing him, burning him beyond recognition. The flames spread from the door of the passageway, spreading throughout the sewer tunnels, igniting and growing larger from the sewage. The methane gases from the sewage were fueling the fire greater and acting like one big can of gasoline and soon, the entire sewer for up to three hundred feet in each direction was completely covered in flames.   
The explosion destroyed electrical cables, sewer pipes, communication and telephone cables in the sewer, knocking out contact in that portion of the city. The explosion caused structural damage to that part of the street from the initial explosion. After the fire died out after thirty seconds, flames still burning in certain places, the sewage started to run again.  
Where Baven was, the explosion blew away the wall, and exposed a fresh water paper, cracked and spewing water in the passageway. The water hit the metal case, still Baven's left skeletal hand, charred from the flames, and cracked open. The intense heat, then sudden drastic change to a cooler temperature caused the metal to warp and crack open. The yellow liquid vials inside the case was still protected and isolated in them, but not for longer.  
A piece of concrete, hanging precariously from above, fell into the cracked case and smashed the vials, releasing Hakusho-2501 into the sewer. It started to spread throughout the sewer and soon would knock out all other remaining communication lines and the sewer system, bringing certain parts of Raccoon City to a halt. The trunk lines in the sewer, and some above, would soon be in-operational for use….  
  
Moments earlier on the surface  
  
Tanaka Shige was just getting ready for work that morning. He'd just left his apartment and was going to his car down the block. As he neared he remembered. 'Forgot my lucky pen in the apartment!' he thought as he came to a stop in front of his car with a snap of his fingers.   
He turned back around and started back to his apartment when he heard a rumble nearby. He stopped and listened, shrugged and started moving again. A second later, a manhole lid came crashing down behind him into his car. He heard it and turned around and saw it. The sewer lid crashed into his yellow Volkswagen Beetle, smashing into the driver's seat of his car.   
He just stood there, eyes wide open, let out a deep breath and fell to his knees. He brought his gloved hands to his face and cried…  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. No Hope (Cont'd)

1 GREAT BALLS OF FIRE  
  
The fire trucks reported to Cumberland St. When they got there, the street was collapsed from the explosion, with the squad cars protruding from the sinkhole, they're strobes still flashing within the smoke along with various other cars too.  
  
Firefighters were climbing down into the rubble of the street while gas mains leaked, water mains gushed fresh, cold water into the rubble. Radio calls were being heard from beneath the rubble, but it wasn't known from where. Suddenly, as a group of firefighters were climbing along the rubble to below, it collapsed the part of the street they were on, and they fell down to below.  
  
Just as that happened, the collapsed street removed a barrier that was holding a squad car up and it came crashing down into the sewer onto a gas main that was still intact. The squad car titled to its left as it went down and smashed down with its driver's door onto the main. There was a split second of a spark and then a humongous explosion from the rubble. A fireball the height of more than a hundred feet reached into the air and engulfed the sinkhole and reached like a wave in all directions across Cumberland St. as it sprung up from the collapse and covered everything.  
  
The nearby trees were on fire from the fireball as the officers and firefighters scrambled up and into the hole to search for more of their own. A nearby Captain told a police officer to get to the Emergency phone on the telephone pole and request more backup a minute later and told him the phone was out. Not soon after, all the telephone communications in that district were out.  
  
Backup came, and the fire was out by the time they got there from the gushing water main as it sprayed full force into the air, onto the houses on the street and others. It was getting dark as the power went out on the block, and soon, the surrounding areas, with comms out.  
  
2 ALERTNESS  
  
Chief Irons heard of the news, and immediately knew who was to blame as he slammed his fist down on his desk. He reached for his Lucent Technologies secure telephone and dialed Sgt. Cartell. He sat there at his desk for a good minute while it scrambled and connected. It was picked up on the first ring.  
  
"Umbrella Incorporated Biohazard Operations Unit Four, Lt. Joel speaking." Came the voice as it was finally picked up.  
  
"Get Sgt. Cartell on the phone now!" The Chief screamed into the phone as the Lieutenant calmly switched the connections to the phone in the Control Room.  
  
The phone rang in the Control Room and a person picked it up, heard the screaming, agitated voice and called Sgt. Cartell over.  
  
"Sgt. Cartell here." He said as he took the receiver, his mouth formed in a thin line as he listened.  
  
"Just what the Hell happened?!?" The Chief ranted into the phone.  
  
"There's no need for concern on your behalf, it's under control." He replied as he shuffled through some papers.  
  
"None of my 'concern'?!?" Chief Irons belched into the phone and continued. "I have more of my men dead now, a collapsed street, cars demolished, destruction beyond recognition. I want to know what you are planning on doing while my city falls all around me because of your company's incompetence?" The Chief concluded.  
  
"It was a operation gone wary, but it succeeded subliminally, I was about to check on it when you yelped." He said as put on an annoyed face and leaned against the nearby filing cabinet in his beige fatigues.  
  
"'Yelped'!?!? You son of a-" He was cut off before he was finished.  
  
"I need the guarantee that the police won't know of our movements tonight as I initiate the 'operation'." Sgt. Cartell requested, but more like demanded.  
  
"Well, it's about God Damn time!!! That was supposed to happen three days ago!" said Chief Irons as plopped down into his leather chair and swiveled in it around.  
  
"As I have already told you, I'll give you a recap on the mission." Sgt. Cartell said as he twirled the phone cord around his right index finger. "I'm going in with about thirty guys, two semi's, three Silverados for night mission. I have to be certain that the mansion is destroyed and no future 'cases' are going to arise. That's all."  
  
There was more to it, but Sgt. Cartell was given instructions to keep the true nature of the op under wraps, and even then he still wasn't sure of the nature too.  
  
"I'm moving out by tonight, you'll receive a report by morning at the same rendezvous, out" And he hung up.  
  
Chief Irons was left sitting, face scrounged up from being hung up on without having a chance to say anything. He carefully hung up the receiver and went to dispatch to do what he had to do.  
  
2.1 One hour earlier  
  
The office was located on the seventy-second floor, facing west as the sun was setting, but the sun's beams were blocked out by heavy Venetian blinds that hung over the floor-to-ceiling windows. The sun's beams sliced through the slits of the blinds and cast a system of horizontal lines across half the office. The other half of the room was dimly lit, and that was from the light of a fish tank in the corner of the room. There was a knock on the heavy oak wood door a second before it swung open.  
  
The person who entered was Caucasian, standing at six feet two inches with a form of closely cropped black hair seen from the blinds. He walked purposefully across the room and climbed a set of two steps coming to a stop at a glossed Chippendale desk on the far side of the darkened room. He stopped just before the desk and peered through the darkness at the figure on the other side of the desk as the person's back was turned to him as they watched the fish tank. After a few moments of silence, he spoke.  
  
"Sir," he began into the darkness, "we found the mole." He waited a moment for a reply, none, then continued. "He was working in the 'Biological Disperse Branch'. Unfortunately, we were too late."  
  
The figure behind the desk moved in the high-backed leather chair to his left, their body moving slightly away from the fish tank. The man waited as he listened to the whir of the air conditioning duct somewhere in the room. It was musty in the room, 'but it always is.' he thought just as he continued.  
  
"The mole released a Dispersing order for Project Gam, otherwise known as 'Hakusho-2501'. He forged a series of documents to make it seem like it was an official order from the top, of which it wasn't." He stopped briefly, then went on. "It seems he was under orders from them, Sir"  
  
"I see." Said the voice from the dark, echoing off from the fish tank.  
  
"That's not all, Sir, from what we can gather, the mole couldn't have done this on their own without further help."  
  
"Your point, Mr. Rainken?" The voce carried a curious tone to it.  
  
"The point is, Sir, that there's another mole in the company, one higher up that could've set things up the way they went with the mole, Sir."  
  
"How 'high' up?" The voice returned to the flat tone that it was before.  
  
"Perhaps on the Board, Sir. Maybe higher." He said as he sighed. "We're working on it now to find out who it might be, but it was as we had expected it."  
  
"Fine." The figure said as they waved their left hand in a dismissed gesture.  
  
"That's not all, Sir." He said as he lowered his head a bit to the rug beneath his shoes.  
  
"Go on, Mr. Rainken."  
  
"Sir, Hakusho-2501 was delivered, as to the processing order by the mole."  
  
"Where was it sent to?" The figure was clearly inquisitive now to what was being said.  
  
"It was delivered last night, Sir, to.. Raccoon City." He finished, perching his lips in a thin line.  
  
"What!?!" The person barked back at him, the chair now fully turned to him now.  
  
He took a deep breath before continuing.  
  
"We received an Comms Update from Sgt. William Cartell, the Chief Security Officer of BioOps out in Raccoon City. He reported a failed attempt of the release of Hakusho-2501, as per orders."  
  
"'Failed release'??" The figure belched as the man saw the eyes of theirs wide open.  
  
"Sir, the mole sent orders to Sgt. Cartell for the release of Hakusho-2501, in the laboratory beneath the city. We were lucky it was foiled by the Raccoon City Police Department, but, it was still deployed in the sewer system of the city." He trailed off.  
  
"What do you mean foiled? And 'deployed'?" The person said as they sat calmly back down in the chair.  
  
He recapped the sequence of events that occurred with the attempted release of Hakusho-2501.  
  
"It wasn't deployed exactly where it was supposed to, but it was close enough to do damage to the lab. Reports and surveillance cameras still working in the lab are showing Hakusho-2501 destroying more than sixty- percent of the lab, Sir. The southwest section of the lab has been completely decimated."  
  
"But there's more.." Came a reply back.  
  
"Yes, Sir. Hakusho-2501 has completely destroyed the computer room located in the lab. All the data on the G-Virus and T-Virus variations has been lost, along with all the battle data. Sir, this is a tremendous loss to Research & Development, never mind the company."  
  
"Are you positive the data can't be recovered?"  
  
"I wouldn't be talking about it then, Sir." He straightened up and went on. "Sir, it doesn't end there either." No reply or noise came back. "Haksuho-2501 has begun to knock out communication lines in the city, including power too. We estimate that in eight hours, seventy-five percent of phone lines and communication would be disabled in the city, with forty percent power failure."  
  
"But, Sir. I don't think all is failed and lost. I have a plan."  
  
2.1.1  
  
"CONFIRMATION"  
  
Sgt. Cartell was in his office reviewing the current armaments ready to go at a moments notice when his Second Lieutenant knocked on the door.  
  
"Come in." he said as he laid the papers on his desk and sat up.  
  
Second Lieutenant Jamelles opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind. He walked to the desk and handed Sgt. Cartell a folder. Sgt. Cartell took it from him and opened it and started to read the files inside. The first one was a fax coversheet from Umbrella Headquarters in Atlanta.  
  
He flipped the coversheet over and went to the next. Just as he had expected, disbursement orders and operation objectives for the mission he was expecting after the failed release of Hakusho-2501. But, what it didn't say was that previous order was a fake.  
  
He turned over the sheet saying the authorization codes, overall mission objectives, coordinates and some more general information. The next sheet was what he was looking for:  
  
"Mission Objectives:  
  
Mobilize your unit immediately and report to the Arklay Mt. Range and set camp within one mile of the Spencer Mansion remains by 2200 23091998, tonight.  
  
Recent reconnaissance photos show that an unknown group of persons, heavily armed, has moved to within the Spencer Mansion remains with unknown motives.  
  
You are to mobilize a unit of your men and set them out to the Spencer Mansion remains, with their top obligation the entry to the laboratory located beneath the mansion remains.  
  
As per ordered, you will set camp within one mile of the Spencer Mansion remains and pose as center of all communications for said recon team to the Spencer Mansion remains and all other Umbrella activities in and within Raccoon City.  
  
Enclosed are the sat recon photos of the unknown hostile group, which we presume are affiliated with the Greenmasge Tower Corp. The sat photos are from 1700 and are therefore three hours old. Use them wisely and accordingly.  
  
Track down the hostile group and, if possible, force them to surrender, their knowledge can prove useful to Umbrella. The Analysis Department has come to the conclusion that the hostile group is after the B4 level of the lab containing fifteen (15) specimens of the new Hunter type, Omega type. We believe they're after the actual specimens and the combat data located on B1 level in the computer room. The Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) on the mansion detonation is unknown, and therefore we cannot take the chance that the specimens were destroyed, as was the battle date in the mansion explosion.  
  
If the recon team does discover that B4 level is relatively intact and the specimens are in good shape, their objectives will change to preventing and capturing the hostile group and thereafter, the protection and retrieval of the Omega Hunters and the battle data on B1 level if accessible.  
  
The use of the MK-33 has been authorized."  
  
  
  
  
  
"What the.?" Sgt. Cartell said as he finished the last sentence. "'Use of the MK-33 has been authorized'?" He said to himself as he looked over the Objectives again.  
  
"What, sir!?!" Second Lieutenant Jamelles asked surprisingly.  
  
"I know. Why would Umbrella authorize the use of the MK-33 on a search mission." Sgt. Cartell said. "I know that there's some B.O.W.'s in the forest, but not too many or big enough that the MK-33 has to be used. Oh well, better to be able to use it with some extra firepower. Let me finish this up." He finished this as he went back to the folder. He flipped to the next page and read:  
  
"Weapons Usage  
  
All weapons are authorized as deemed appropriate by the Commander-in-Charge there, Sgt. Cartell.  
  
As stated before, the MK-33 has been fully authorized for usage as deemed by the Commander-in-Charge, Sgt. Cartell.  
  
Your unit will be the only one deployed to the Arklay Mt. Range, therefore, you will have no backup than your own unit.  
  
There will be no air support available while you're on this mission. The nearest time for any air support will be at the earliest 1400 24091998, so plan with that limit."  
  
"All weapons authorized!?!" Sgt. Cartell blurted out after finishing up. "And again, saying that the MK-33 is authorized for use. And no air support, why mention that?"  
  
"I don't like the feeling of this mission, sir." Second Lieutenant Jamelles said to Sgt. Cartell.  
  
"I know but, we don't have a choice. Notify the men to get ready and move out by no later than 2100. That's all" he said as he looked at the sat photos.  
  
"Yes, sir." Second Lieutenant Jamelles said as he left, closing the door once more behind him.  
  
Sgt. Cartell studied the five satellite photos that were in the folder also. The first two were real time photos with no altercation to them and some clouds could be seen here and there on the photos, covering some parts with a gray haze to it. He could see a group of about eighteen persons moving in two groups Northwest toward the mansion.  
  
But, something was wrong. The group was walking in a straight line, but toward a mountain, and not toward the mansion. The last three photos were thermal and infrared of the group. But, the mansion was white, bright white in some parts. 'That doesn't make sense' he said as he squinted at the photos. Also, around the mansion were white spots, meaning there was some great amount of heat there. He flipped back to the other real time photos and realized that the clouds he saw before were coming from and away from the mansion, the clouds were gray, as he thought.  
  
'Wait a second, those are clouds of smoke, from the mansion. This makes no sense, it's like the mansion is still burning, and hot too. But that can't be, that was over two months ago, the fire would've been out by now. I don't like this one bit." He said as he went through the rest of the papers.  
  
Five minutes earlier.  
  
Second Lieutenant Jamelles just left Sgt. Cartell's office and relayed the news. He then went to Satellite Recon officer for any updates. After he told of the plans, he brought something up.  
  
"Sir, I just checked the weather updates for around Raccoon City." The Sat Recon officer told Second Lieutenant Jamelles.  
  
"And?"  
  
"Sir, there's a strong thunderstorm cell is moving North-Northwest toward Raccoon City. It'll be over Raccoon Forest and Raccoon City by no later than 2300, sir." 


End file.
